GOT Polish Challenge Flowers - Silver-lined daisies

Hello everyone! My biggest achievement today is that for the first time in forever I remembered to use only old polishes!!! I dug out the Ciate minis from my 2012 Mini Mani Advent Calendar and picked out a few that I haven't shown the love to in a long time.

I started with three coats of Power Dressing (over a very thick layer of Cacee Nails base coat - this blue is a stainer, but its worth it!). Once dry I dotted on the flower shapes with LA Colors Metallic Silver using one of my larger dotting tools. I then went over those with a smaller dotting tool using Ciate Cupcake Queen which creates the "silver-lined" effect. I finished by dotting Power Dressing in the centre of each flower and a coat of Seche Vite.

The flowers themselves are simple, but I think having the extra layer of silver gives it a little something extra. The metallic silver really catches the light when I move my hands (and being quite Mediterranean, I use my hands a lot!)

Take a look at the links below to see all the other fab and groovy flower manis from Crumpet's Nail Tarts :D

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

Tri Polish Tuesdays - April's Glitter Bomb!

Hello everyone! Today is the last day using April's Tri Polish Challenge colours of yellow, pink and blue. I've already done a couple of manis including all three colours so I settled for two today.

I decided that a ton of glitter with some negative space was the way forward (obviously!), so I freehanded sections of Orly Pink Waterfall and OPI Can't Find My Czechbook (you can probably tell fro my choice of polish that glitter wasn't originally in the plan - I wouldn't normally use Orly or OPI as base colours for glitter!). I outlined the sections in black and sat back thinking it just needed a little bit of something extra. I decided that was a coat of L-A Glitter Nails Peacock over the OPI. The I sat back again and decided that it needed some L-A Glitter Nails Grape over the Orly. Once I'd done that I was happy (mostly because there was nowhere else for me to add glitter!), and finished with Seche Vite.

Here's a quick pic before I added the Grape glitter:

So that wraps up the April installment of the Tri Polish Challenge. The colours for May are red, green and purple, so there's a whole new palette to play with kicking off next Tuesday!

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

GOT Polish challenge - Hot Pink

Hello everyone! Another week has rolled around in the GOT Polish Challenge and the theme for this week is Hot Pink. I was a little undecided as to what to do this week, but I was stamping a floral while I was thinking about it and realized that I had what I needed right under my nose!

I started with a base of LA Colors French White and then stamped an image from MoYou Pro XL 06 in Konad Black and waited for that to dry. Once dry, I thinned out Cacee Nails Olivia and Jessica Purple Burst with some acetone and started "colouring in". I added some Color Club Fly With Me for the leaves and finished with Seche Vite.

I was originally planning to do something bold, bright and HOT pink, but when this idea presented itself I decided to go with it and I think it works! 

The GOT challenge has seemed to have become a stamping challenge for me the last couple of weeks - I promise to try and do something freehand for next week! Having said that, I have a stamping mani tomorrow to close out Texture week with The Digit-al Dozen, but after that I'll be freehanding my way into the Easter weekend :)

Sam xx

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Tri Polish Tuesdays April #3 - A quick neon dotticure

Hello everyone! I have been so preoccupied with The Digit-al Dozen week that I almost forgot about Tri Polish Tuesdays! I figure that if I can get through this first week and stay on top of all my challenges along with having Scarlett home and working, then I'm probably doing okay :)

Having said that, I realized at 7pm that I needed to do something quick so settled for a dotticure with some bright neons. I started with a black base of All About Nails Liqorice and then added dots in white so that the neons would pop. I covered over most of the white with LA Colors Flicker and Absolute, and Color Club Otherworldly before finishing with Seche Vite.

Despite the fact that I literally threw this together at the last minute, I love the colours and its been ages since I did a dotticure! 

Tomorrow will bring another DD mani and I already have my GOT ready for Thursday so I can continue to pretend that I'm on top of things :)

Sam xx

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GOT Polish Challenge - Coral

Hello everyone! Just putting this out there at the start - I hate coral! Not the colour itself, but the horrible way it sits next to my pasty skin, making it look even more pasty! Now that's out of the way, I've been stamping again! Still loving it but glad to have got back to some freehand nail art this week too. I may actually have found a good balance between the two :)

I painted my nails with LA Colors Hottie, but my bottle of this is super old that its hard to get a good finish (mental note to buy new bottle!), so I topped it with the very similar Nails Inc East Austin and then stamped using an image from MoYou Pro XL 03 using Konad White stamping polish before finishing with Seche Vite.

Its simple but it was the quickest way for me to do something pretty and then to get that coral off my nails! I am still loving my MoYou plates (might have to place another order this weekend!)! I'm going to a wedding on HMS Warrior on Saturday and am planning to use one of the stamping images to match my dress (although I'm still deciding whether to go out and buy another dress tomorrow!). Either way, I'm going to be blinging up the nails as much as possible :)

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

GOT Polish Challenge and NAILS Mag April Challenge - Pastel

Hello everyone! Today I painted my nails while watching "Frozen" with Scarlett which may be responsible for some of the colour choices. I'm not really a fan of pastel colours, or Disney films if I'm honest, but I'm enjoying this one so far, and its the quietest that Scarlett has been for about a week in one sitting, so I'm happy with that! Luckily, the NAILS Mag challenge prompt for today is also Pastel (serendipity, yay!) so its a buy one, get one free today too :D

I started with a base of Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau (I adore this as its opaque in one coat!), and then added curves of graduated dots in Nail Essentials Silver Shimmer. Once dry I added smaller dots inside the silver of OPI Gargantuan Green Grape, and Models Own Lilac Dream and Lemon Meringue before finishing with Seche Vite.

Quite a simple design for me, and I toyed with the idea of adding more to it, but I think it works fine as it is so I'll leave it there :)

I have had the chance for a bit of a catch up this morning and am making good progress with my first Digit-al Dozen manis which will be coming at you from the 14th April - I can't wait to show you all some of them. It'll also explain why my fingers have spent a lot of this morning stuck together with nail glue, and why I am therefore now missing sections of skin from a couple of fingers... 

My MoYou plates also arrived today and I haven't even had the chance to play with them yet - how's that for self control?! If I get a chance later today, that's next on my agenda, so hopefully I'll have some manis featuring those too...

Sam xx

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Tri Polish Tuesdays April #1 - Yellow, pink and blue!

Hello everyone! Here comes today's catch up post! As expected, the school holidays have sent my blogging and painting schedule completely out of the window! Having OH home for a week as well also makes for constant interruptions so I really didn't stand a chance! Never mind, onwards and upwards!

Today (or yesterday) sees the start of another colour combination for April and this time its yellow, pink and blue. I chose a simple sponged rainbow using Models Own Lemon Meringue, and LA Colors Aquatic and Pink Bubbles and finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

I'm really loving this retro tie dye effect that is created by sponging just a few colours together! 

I'm off for another round of Minecraft tutorials/cake pop making/7 year old nail painting (delete as appropriate!) and I will be desperately trying to have tomorrow's GOT Pastel mani ready on time!

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

GOT Polish Challenge Yellow/Peach and NAILS Mag 31DC - Marbling

Hello everyone! Another Thursday and another GOT polish challenge day has come around. The colours for this week are yellow/peach and I can't say I was thrilled with them, especially as I wamted to be able to tie them in with the NAILS Mag prompt "Marbling". Many of you know that I have a love/hate relationship with water matbling (love how it looks, HATE doing it!), so that was a no go from the off. However I have been trying out Robin Moses No Water Marbling technique (tutorial here) with up to now fairly inconsistent results and today it all finally clicked into place - I am so happy! 

The base is LA Colors Illusion. It really is an illusion as I promise I didn't really use purple in a yellow/peach prompt, honest! ;) Then while the polish was still wet, I added blobs of LA Colors  French White and Hottie along with Models Own Lemon Meringue. I used a fine detail brush to drag the wet polish into marble patterns and allowed to dry for a good while before finishing with Seche Vite.

I was so happy to have got this technique right finally that I did two sets, one in the GOT colours (ignore the glaring misuse of purple - but it needed a background colour to make the yellow/peach work, so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!), and another in coffee and chocolate similar to the ones in Robin's video. Here is a sneaky peak at my yummy "mocha coffee chocolate frappuccino" version:

I'm off to do some more of this, playing around with the vast array of colour combinations alone are enough to keep me going for weeks, so expect to see a few of these. I've also spotted a tutorial on how to do flowers in this style - I am all over that!

Tomorrow's prompt for the 31DC is "Mint" and I have something fun lined up for that one! Until then, follow the Inlinkz for all the other GOT manis :)

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

GOT Polish "Ruffle", NAILS Mag 31DC "Dotting Tool" and "A New Technique" (a couple of days early!)

Hello everyone! Today I am combining three prompts into one. I was hoping to get four out of it, but realized that it was going to be a little tricky to cover "Untrieds" in with "only polishes over a year old". Once my brain accepted defeat on that one, I settled on my older polishes for the "Ruffle" prompt, you have to use a dotting tool to create the design, and as its a new technique, it covers the NAILS Mag prompt for Saturday too!

I started with a white base to help the colours hold, and then dotted on lines of (from base to free edge) Rimmel Sunshine, Barry M Gelly Satsuma, LA Colors Absolute, Jessica Purple Burst, LA Colors Edgy, Barry M Gelly Blackberry, Blue Grape, Guava, Greenberry and Key Lime. Finished with Seche Vite.

I can't say that this is my favourite look, but I flung in as many colours as I possibly could, so its bright and "in your face" if nothing else! Its a simple technique and can be made more or less complicated by using a smaller or larger dotting tool.

Tomorrow's prompt is stamping - I might try and be bothered, but I have a few other manis lined up for you if I really can't face it! Can you tell I'm not a fan? ;) It looks lovely, but I would much prefer to paint :D At the very least, I promise to think about it...

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

Tri Polish Tuesdays and NAILS Mag 31DC - My favourite nail product

Hello everyone! Today I'm doubling up as I have so many manis to fit in this month! I had already decided to do a sponging mani as they are my current obsession, and that tied in (tenuously, but I'll take it!) with the 31DC prompt! So my current favourite nail product is technically not nail specific, but make up sponge it is!

I started with a white base to make the colours really pop and then sponged on several layers of LA Colors Mint, Aquatic and Edgy before finishing with Seche Vite.

Its got a retro, tie-dye, lava lamp effect that I love, plus it features some of my favourite colours! I I originally planned to put something else over the top, but I loved the colour combo so much that I couldn't bring myself to add anything else.

Follow the links below to see all the other fabulous Tri Polish manis and if you are thinking of joining in, we have the colours themes for the next three months now posted in the group. We have one more left in this colour scheme though so check back next Tuesday for the last green, blue and purple creation :)

Sam xx

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Tri Polish Challenge March #2 - Name that mani!

Hello everyone! Today is the second installment of the green, blue and purple March for the Tri Polish Challenge! I doodled this idea down a while ago and decided to use it for today.

Staring with a base of LA Colors French White, I freehand painted sections of Color Club Pucci-licious, Bright Night and Abyss, and separated all the coloured sections using LA Colors Metallic Silver before finishing with Seche Vite.

I have no idea what to call this, so all name suggestions gratefully received! Inspite of that, I really like it and this doodling designs idea is really working out well for me. I always have a nail template and a pencil next to me to capture ideas and its so much better than sitting at my nail desk trying to figure out what to paint exactly when I need to paint it!

Hope you all like this one, and don't forget to check out all the other ladies TPC nails by following the links below :)

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

GOT Polish Challenge - Skittles!

Hello everyone! Its Skittles week in the Golden Oldie Thursday challenge which makes for a very happy Sam! I love having an excuse to get random!

I also felt the need to use some clashy colours, so this post comes with a "May need sunglasses" advisory :)

I started with Barry M Gelly Prickly Pear as my base and then added in dots, heart flowers (Hey, why not? Its skittles!), stripes, leopard print and a hybrid zebra/tiger using LA Colors Hottie and Barry M Gelly Blackberry.

Next week our theme is "Purple". Wondering now why I didn't look at next week's prompt in advance! Not to worry, I think I have bought more purple polishes over the years than anything else, so finding some different ones for next week shouldn't be too hard!

I will be back with a fun post for you later today as its "Your favourite drink" day in the NAILS Mag 31DC - can't wait to share that one :)

In the meantime, check out all the other skittles on show from Crumpet's Nail Tarts today...

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up