Happy Birthday to my beautiful girl! FingerFood's Theme Buffet - For Scarlett

Hello everyone! Today's post comes with a "Beware - sappy, proud mummy" warning. My beautiful Scarlett is 8 today!

All the lovely ladies who take part in the Theme Buffet have been posting manis for Scarlett all week and she has been beyond excited to look through them all and read all the posts. To get fully involved Scarlett chose the pattern and polishes for the nails I painted and then asked if she could also paint mine, so this is a blog post with two authors - one 30-something, the other 8 (proudly displaying her own watermark!) :)

 

Starting with mine (age before beauty and all that!). Scarlett adores all my glitters from L-A Glitter Nails so she picked out five (yes five!) of her favourites and asked for a wavy, stripy creation, so I freehanded sections of Apple, Peacock, Sapphire, Grape and Eggplant which I then separated with fine lines of black acrylic paint (black polish would've looked too "lumpy" over the glitter) and finished with two coats of Seche Vite for a smooth and shiny finish.

Next up is the birthday girl (in her own words):

Hello everyone! I am Scarlett, I am going to tell step by step how I did my mum's  

nails the other day.

First I painted a bright yellow Models Own (called lemon meringue), then I waited for it to dry.

Next I painted some thick dots in barryM purple (called blackberry).

Next I did the same thing in green, but with a thinner dotter.

Last of all I surprisingly found out that I wanted to get the thin dotter and use another barryM but this time it was a pink one called grapefuit.

That is the end of my talk and thank you everyone for my fabulous birthday nails I love them all lots and lots! Now I will hand you back over to my mum.

I hope you like Scarlett's birthday nails from both of us! The buffet theme for next week is Galaxies, which is another one of my favourites. In the meantime, I just have to get through this weekend and an overly ambitious party theme (because hiring a choreographer and taking advantage of the fact that your husband is a music video director and shooting a pop video with a bunch of 8 year olds seems like a really good idea at first!). She is also insisting that I recreate my glitter bomb on my own nails for her party just to add to the totally unstressful few days that I have ahead! :D

Sam (and Scarlett xx) xx 

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FingerFood's Theme Buffet - Oriental

Hello everyone! HAving sat out last week, I'm back for the Oriental week of the Theme Buffet. This was suggested by Dawn from SassyLittleNails. I was really excited by this theme and was determined to step out of my Cherry Blossom comfort zone, so instead I bring you some Ming vase inspired nail art :)

Starting with a base of LA Colors French White, I painted on the outlines of the flowers, buds, leaves and other detail using Revlon Royal. I diluted it with a little acetone to get the "wash" effect. I filled in the flowers etc with OPI I Can Teal You Like Me from the Sheer Tints range and then, once dry, I added in the royal blue criss cross patterns with an ultra fine Sharpie. I gave the Sharpie a long time to fully dry before top coating with Seche Vite.

I must admit that I am in love with how these turned out! And using the Sharpie for the detail made life sooooo much easier!

Our theme for next week is something a little different. My daughter Scarlett is going to be 8 on the 15th May so our theme is "For Scarlett". She is already the biggest nail art fan girl so having a theme named after her is the highlight of her year so far! Whether its birthday related, inspired by something she likes (or that little girls like in general), or even just a scarlet mani, she is going to be beyond excited and I am so happy that the ladies in our challenge group are willing to get involved. Thanks gals! :)

Sam xx

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FingerFood's Theme Buffet - Fishtail ;)

Hello everyone! This week's theme in the Theme Buffet is Fishtail. I'm not going to lie to you, I've tried that technique two or three times over the last year and never once have I got more than halfway through a single nail before getting so bored and frustrated that I wiped it off and started again with something else. Its just one of those things that aren't meant to be.

Anyhoo, I had to think of a way around the theme that still fitted the prompt (also feeling glad at this point that I suggested people stretch the themes as far as they wanted!), so I painted fishtails, but more like the ones attached to my parents' Koi. 

I started with a base of Barry M Gelly Blueberry and LA Colors Flurry, and then painted in the white base for the tails in French White. Once dry I covered the white with Color Club Sparkle and Soar and painted in the details with Barry M Gelly Satsuma, Tangerine and a little more white. I added a little LA Colors Metallic Silver to the edges and a coat of Seche Vite to finish.

I'm actually pretty happy with the way that these turned out - flamey, abstract-y, fishy nails. The cremes, shimmers and glitters all worked pretty well together...

Next week is far more up my alley! I'll be back with something a little bit Goth for you - I have so many ideas for this that I don't know where to start! We might even end up with a Goth week if I can't rein it in lol!

Check out all the other fabulous fishtail manis from the ladies with far more patience than me! ;)

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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FingerFood's Theme Buffet - Freestyle Barry M Paisley

Hello everyone! I'm back!!! Sorry to say I missed out on last week's prompt - something had to give and I decided it was more polite (how very British!) to skip my own challenge rather than anyone else's! Anyhoo, I'm back, still under the weather, but with the super exciting news that I am now part of The Digit-al Dozen. You have no idea how thrilled I am - well, you probably do as I haven't stopped going on about it since I received the invitation, but its a big deal to me and something I aspired to, so it'll take me a while to adjust :)

So, on to today's prompt - Freestyle! I fancied a paisley so picked out a set of my favourite Barry M colours and got to work! The base is two coats of Greenberry. Once that was dry I painted in the paisley shapes in white and then dotted the border of each shape with Indigo and an inner border with Fuchsia. I then added in some little flowers with Tangerine and Cobalt Blue before finishing with Seche Vite.

So there you have some summery, neon-ish, freestyle paisley. Loving these and would love to keep them on for a while but duty calls :p 

Be sure to check out all the other fab freestyle manis - there are some great designs on show this week!

Sam xx

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Purple madness! GOT Polish, Theme Buffet and NAILS 31DC!

Hello everyone! Today I have a three in one post for you. This mani combines the GOT Polish challenge and NAILS Magazine 31DC "Purple" prompts, along with FingerFood's Theme Buffet "Dots and Stripes" prompt. The polishes are all over 1 year old, there are dots and stripes and its all purple, so therefore made of win!

The base is two coats of Barry M Gelly Prickly Pear. I then taped on a grid pattern and went over the whole nail with French White before carefully removing the tape. I added dots to each white space using a selection of my favourite purples (light to dark: LA Colors Wisteria, Electra and Edgy) and finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

I was able to use some of my favourite colours in this design and I love the fact that I managed to get it to line up for the most part!

So that's my three for the price of one post! I hope you like it. There are loads of links beliw to some gorgeous nail art, so be sure to check them out!

Sam xx

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

FingerFood's Theme Buffet - Abstract

Hello everyone! Its Abstract week over at FingerFood's Theme Buffet and as everyone knows I love abstract! I intended to go with one of my traditional swirly "out there" abstracts but then I did this mani (intending to use it for something else entirely!), and thought it would go well here!

I started with three coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Deep Blue Sea and added a coat of Seche Vite. Once dry, I used a large dotter to create large dots on each nail, then added a smaller dot of white inside and another smaller contrasting dot in the middle. In between, I added smaller white dots with one inset colour. I would love to list all the colours I used in the dots for this mani, but the only repeated colour is LA Colors French White and this post would be waaaaaay too long! I left them to dry and finished with a final coat of Seche Vite.

I'm so in love with these and am planning on recreating them for the weekend! Well, I was until I sliced through my cuticle and the top part of my finger while trying to slice through a grape stalk today. No more pretty nail pics from me for a while lol - I'm so lucky I managed to build up my mani stash this week and I still have so many great guest posts on the way for you all.

Our theme for next week is "Cute". I haven't decided where to go with that one just yet, but we'll all be posting from Sunday so be sure to check out all our designs :)

Sam xx

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FingerFood's Theme Weeks - Hearts

Hello everyone! I hope that you've all had a lovely weekend. This week's theme for the buffet is a little predictable with Hearts, but I would've felt weird choosing something totally unrelated to Valentine's Day (conformity, meh!). Still, looking at all the designs so far, we all have very different interpretations of the theme and we're all fab, so there!

I started with a base of LA Colors Black Velvet and waited for it to dry. I used a fine liner brush to add the white lines, hearts and symbols with LA Colors French White and then went over the hearts with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Jolie En Rose. To give it a final twist and a blackboard feel (lessons in love anyone? Not from me lol!), I finished with OPI matte top coat.

This can be interpreted as either a cute way of working out what love is, or a slightly stalkerish, obsessive kind of mani - I'm going with the cute ;)

Take a look at all the other fab heart manis from the ladies this week, and if you've done some Valentines nails, head on over to the Sparkle Queen's Valentine's Link Up Party and show us what you've got! :)

Next week's theme is Abstract - "Kah favourite!" (if you or your child has a furby, you'll feel my pain in no longer being able to speak plain English, but having to add in Furbish :/ )

Sam xx

FingerFood's Theme Buffet - Sparkle Week!

Hello everyone! Today I have for you something of a glitter bomb! Seeing as its Sparkle week over at FingerFood's Theme Buffet I couldn't really resist! I decided to go with my beloved Color Club Glitter Vixens collection and put together a shattered stained glass look with a ton of glitter :)

I started by painting random sections of nail with base blue, green, purple and silver and then added the corresponding glitter over the top (managing for the most part to stay inside the lines!). The blue glitter is Sexy Siren, the silver is Sex Symbol, the green is Object of Envy and the purple is Tru Passion. I allowed these to dry for a while before carefully lining the sections with black and finishing with Seche Vite.

I'm glad I had a chance to do a bit of full-on glitter. Its been too long! Definitely not a look for every day though and the fumes from being around the open glitter polishes definitely sent me a little bit giddy!

Our theme for next week is Birthdays/Celebrations (as its my birthday on the 4th), but while you wait for those manis, check out all the other fab manis full of Sparkle using the links below!

Sam xx

FingerFood's Theme Buffet - Weather

Hello everyone! Another week has flown past and a new theme  has started. This week our theme is weather! I had a few ideas for this but it seemed appropriate after a storm killed my laptop a week or so ago, that I go with lightning! Especially as I'm smugly typing on my new Chromebook in between extended periods of app browsing :)

I started with a black base and allowed it to fully dry, before sponging on white and various shades of blues, greys and purples (Ciate Vintage and Power Dressing, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Grape Going and Revlon Impulsive). I then added the lightning by layering French White and Models Own Sun Kissed and finished with Seche Vite.

I am so in love with these - I love the stormy sky effect! The hint of yellow in the lightning didn't show up in the pictures very well but in real life added a little more depth and crackle!

Take a look at all the links below to see all of our weather inspired manis and maybe join us for next week's theme - Sparkle!