The Digit-al Dozen does Texture Day 5 - Textured Stamped Floral

Hello everyone! Woohoo! I made it! I have completed my first week with The Digit-al Dozen. I have loved every minute of it but it has been a pressured kinda week and its a massive relief to have the first one out of the way! Everyone in the group is lovely and they have been super supportive, but there is a huge amount of talent between all the ladies and its been pretty intimidating to have to jump in to it!

Today I have gone with my new found fave, stamping! It looks a little more Christmassy than I intended as I used all textured polishes to complete the look and the choices from my stash were limited! I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Sugar Fix and then stamped an image from MoYou Pro XL 06 with Konad Black. Once dry, I filled in the flowers with Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Cherry Drop and Claire's Red Leather polish (with a little help from the super sheer LA Colors Moody Red), and the leaves with more Sugar Coat, but this time Sour Apple (and a touch of Sinful Colors Exotic Green). I finished with a little of L-A Glitter Nails fab copper glitter at the centre of the flowers.

I loved how these turned out! The colours show brighter in real life so it looks more tropical (the irony of posting Xmassy looking nails at Easter is not lost on me!). I wasn't sure how the textured polishes would work together for the "colouring in" but they were great. Rexture over texture can be quite unforgiving so I had to be super careful with placement, but its definitely something I'll try again.

So there you have my first week with The Digit-al Dozen. Its been so much fun and I can't wait for next month. Next week is going to be a busy one, with lots of music/tv/film inspired manis for the NCC and a mammoth catch up with the NAILS Mag challenge on the cards. I also have lots of swatches and reviews to post (can you tell that Scarlett is heading back to school??? Normal service will be resumed)! :D

Sam xx

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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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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

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A stamping obsession - it all starts right here...

Hello everyone! I am tying my Mother's Day nails for FingerFood's Theme Buffet together with my full and frank confession about stamping. Its a vintage floral that my Mum loves and has asked for as her next mani (she will happily let me paint her nails in any colour/pattern combo - despite being at the top end of her seventies!).

I have been painting my nails for years, been down with the whole nail art "thing" for a couple of years and blogging consistently for over a year now, but I have always resisted stamping, despite how much I loved looking at the awesome stamped creation of some of my nail buddies (some named and shamed in this recent post). I had a full set of BM plates that were okay but I've always been more into the idea of honing my freehand skills (at this point, I'm going to mention that this will not change), and got caught up in the idea that stamping is kinda cheating (I know, don't all shout at me at once!).

Anyway, I'm a sucker for a good gimmick and I saw the MoYou London plates and the packaging and immediately fell in love. Then I looked at the images and they caught my interest unlike any other plate had before. Finally I saw this mani by Canadian Nail Fanatic and that was it! I was on that site ordering plates and counting the minutes until they turned up. Yesterday they did - Pro XL plates 03 and 06:

I immediately went for a floral design in the top right corner of the 06 plate as I knew that I Could play with some jelly polishes and my OPI sheer tints. Here's how it came out stamped with Konad black:

I smudged the thumb a bit, but I'm not one for doing things over and figured that most of that would get covered up by the colour. I them added the OPI sheer tints and watered down a few other colours with acetone to add some depth. I Can Teal You Like Me with Color Club Bright Night, Don't Violet Me Down with LA Colors Edgy and I'm Never Amberrassed with a very watered down Barry M Gelly Mango. I used Sinful Colors Exotic Green for the leafy bits and finished with Seche Vite.

So I know it needs improvement, but I am very happy with my first attempt at this leaded light, painted porcelain effect. Plus I have a ton of lovely stamping images to play with to get the technique right.

Sorry to all those I doubted about stamping, I am officially a convert :)

Sam xx

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