xoxo, 

  Arlene

If you can see the video, click here to view.

My friend Krystal and I had an Arts & Crafts night at my house making Burlesque Pasties out of Duct Tape. My friend Evelyn likes to call them "Titty Tassles" lol

We were inspired in making them after one of my friends, Gigi La Femme (who is also a famous Burlesque dancer) gave our friend Greg some pasties for his birthday as a joke.

If you follow me on Facebook, you might have seen pictures of Gigi La Femme before. Not only is she a famous burlesque dancer, but she is also Miss Coney Island 2010 here in New York. I did her makeup for a photoshoot this summer (picture to the right). The photographer is one of the best photographers out there, Greg Brophy. You have to check out his amazing work here. His gallery has an array of goodies from Burlesque dancers, beautiful scenery, etc. He even has shot with several celebrities such as singers Kelis and Nelly Furtado just to name a few. Working with Greg is always a joy.


Also, if you live in New York or plan on visiting for vacation, you definitely have to check out one of Gigi La Femme's shows. Amazing show! It's totally worth going. It's fun to watch, funny and entertaining as well. Just check out the Wassabassco Burlesque dancers in the link here

As for the pasties...Krystal and I had so much fun making them. I made the Ladybug and Zebra print with the bows. Krystal made the Orange blossoms, Zebra print with a rose bud and Mr & Mrs. Pacman. Aren't they so cute?

I have a variety of duct tape colors and patterns as you can see below. I have been making so many things out of duct tape which I will be uploading pictures shortly of more creations to come.

You can buy really fun colorful and patterned duct tape here: http://amzn.to/2c9XwKd 

There is 2 different ways you can DIY Burlesque Pasties. I've broken down the 2 methods below:

I was inspired to do this rainbow leopard print design after seeing a video tutorial by YouTuber Sayanythingbr00ke's (video below). It requires using the Konad stamping kit which I absolutely LOVE! I bought my Konad kit from WowSoCool about a year ago when I first discovered it by YouTube gurus Petrilude and Sayanthingbr00ke and I have not stopped using them ever since.

When I first purchased them online from WowSoCool, I was expecting to receive my package in about 5-7 days. But the company did better than I had expected. It was shipped to me in 2 days flat. Amazing! Not only that....I was so happy with the product and the shipping that I had to personally write an email of gratitude to the company for my happiness with the product and service. However, I had expected that my email was going to be lost in the world of possible spam and never be read. But to my surprise, I received a response the next day from Jessica. She was so nice and polite and very quick to reply my email. If you follow me on YouTube, then you will know that I had hosted a Halloween Contest last year and WowSoCool sponsored some amazing prizes.

The Konad plate that I used in the design was M57 which happens to be one of my favorites. If you want to learn how to create this look, then watch Brooke's video tutorial below.










Colors I used:

Top Left:

If you have seen my Valentines video on my YouTube channel, I made a DIY (Do it Yourself) on
"How to make a Cookie Cutter." I made a variety of cookie cutters such as: hearts, stars and even our most loved Disney character, Mickey Mouse (which I made for my best friend Joann).

I was able to make some really adorable cookies with my cookie cutter. I provided the recipe and the steps on how I created my cookies (picture above). Click here to the original blog post for the recipe. The original tutorial video for the cookie cutters is below.




Well one of my YouTube subscribers TheIvyAuthor sent me a message about how she was having a Hollywood theme tea party and used my tutorial video to make her very own cookie cutters. She was kind enough to share her video with me and I thought I would show you what she made. Check out her video below. She made Hollywood sunglasses and I have to say...they are so adorable! Thanks girl for sharing your creation with me. =)

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp milk
1 cup of powdered sugar
Piping bag for frosting (or use a ziplock bag and just cut a tiny hole at the tip)
Food coloring
Jolly Ranchers (or any hard candy)

To learn how to make these cookies, you can watch the tutorial video.

I practiced a zombie look on myself after being inspired by the New York Halloween parade of the zombie dancers from the Michael Jackson Thriller video. (Picture of the zombie dancers below)

The tutorial is below of the process. It's definitely not your everyday look that's for sure....but it was fun for a one time Halloween occassion. Happy Halloween.

Well, I'm very excited to announce that you can get some awesome Konad Stamping Nail Art from the company WowSoCool for a fraction of the cost. It's very simple and easy to use. You don't have to spend hours at a time decorating your nails anymore since this process takes no more than 10 minutes or less. The instructional video is below. Now, let's talk about the DISCOUNT shall we?

1.) Go to the website: www.wowsocool.com
2.) When you order, use the coupon code: queenleilani and 30% will be taken off your purchase. Isn't that awesome?
3.) Do note, that the discount does NOT apply towards "Build Your Own Kit" since that is already discounted.

(picture from google, just to give you an idea of the end result).



The customer service and shipping is EXCELLENT! I actually emailed the company letting them know how happy I was with my products and the next day, I received a reply back by a representative named Jessica. I was very happy about that. She has been so helpful and very open in communication with me and I sincerely appreciate that. I know it takes a lot of work to be in the Customer Service world especially when you do not feel as though your job is appreciated. Trust me, I know....I've worked in customer service before for years. So when I deal with EXCELLENT customer service, I make sure that I give credit where credit is due.

The shipping was rather fast. I ordered my Konad stamping kit on a Friday and I got it on Monday. I was very surprised how fast I received my products! Oh another thing, the shipping is very inexpensive. If you are in the US, it's FREE SHIPPING for orders over $20.00 within the USA and Canada and $2.00 for anything that is $19.99 and under. There is no complaints there for me!

I am very big about customer service and shipping. You can shop on a website where the products can be cute, but it's the customer service that stands behind the products that matter to me the most! If the customer service is horrible, I will not put my money towards bad service. I will shop elsewhere. So if I say that WowSoCool has EXCELLENT customer service, it's because they really do. It's like that saying: "a beautiful woman with an ugly personality, makes her look ugly."

My friend Mary ordered from them after I brought my Konad products to school to show her a demo. She fell in love with them on first sight and ended up ordering them online right in front of me. I saw her a few days later and she ran after me very excited to me to show me her newly painted toes. HAHA. She said she was also surprised how fast the shipping was.

So check it out and let me know what you think.