31DC2015 Day 24 - Decals

Hi Goddesses

Decals.  Oh boy oh boy oh boy.  I've tried them once or twice before, and it wasn't good lol.  But they look so amazing on every one else!  How is this possible!  So I put the prompt in the challenge to force me to have another go.  Yeh, still not good.

Since I did this mani, I have received the wise counsel of some friends, so I hope my NEXT attempt will be better.

I used the decals on a plastic bag method, and here were my problems -

- I don't think I used the right colours
- you can see my brushstrokes :(
- the decal was quite brittle and tore in a couple of places as I put it on the nail (you can see this best on the middle nail)
- oh clean up - mess mess mess

So if I hate it so much, why am I blogging it?  Well, because we all start somewhere.  Maybe it's your first decal attempt, and yours look like shit too, or maybe in a few months I'll be awesome at it, and we'll be able to laugh at this post and learn where it was all going wrong.

That said, I love the base, which was a semi-splodge of Barry M Lemon Ice Cream and Sugar Apple, the plate (Vivid Lacquer 036), and I love how the matte top coat made the whole design look a little like fabric.

First step next time - pick better colours!

An InLinkz Link-up

Digit-al Dozen Dotting Days - Dots Within Dots Within Dots Within Dots ......

Hi Goddesses - and Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeeeeeee

Yesterday I posted a Jumbo Dots mani full of happy colours.  It was one of those manis where I had to talk to myself (honestly) – do I leave it as is, or do I carry on and do what I set out to do?

Well, I carried on.  The only difference between this conversation and the identical ones I’ve had over the years, is that I’m a cleverer pup now and I take photos before I carry on lol.  You know it’s wise!  I even took photos at the half-way stage of the dots within dotting ... you can never be too careful!

So this mani was always supposed to be a dots within dots extravaganza.  It’s only because I loved the jumbo stage so much that that became a separate post, PLUS you don’t get to see a mani like that very often.

So I started putting dots inside my dots, and then more dots inside my dots that were inside my dots lol.   You need to get the colour balance right, so that you’re not adding a central dot too close to a jumbo dot in the same colour, but for the most part, I think I got it right.

My only difficulty with this mani came where I’d overlapped my dots.  Some were fine, but with others, I had to add half a dot or ¾ of a dot, and it bugs me that the middle finger is a bit wonky.

That said, I still absolutely love it.   A reminder of your colours –

On base I have Literary Lacquers Tesseract, then

Barry M Lemon Ice Cream

Rimmel Ultra Violet

OPI Hot & Spicy

OPI Strawberry Margarita

W7 Neon Green

I added matte top coat quite early on in the re-dotting process.  Everything was just too damn shiny lol, and in photos, you really couldn’t see all the marvellous that was going down.

Plus, doesn’t the matte make it look all sherbert-y?   Sweet shop goodness.  

I hope you’ve enjoyed this extra Digit-al Dozen Week.  I have a couple more dotty manis that didn’t make it into this week – I don’t know yet whether to group them together and do another week in September, or just slowly release them into blogland.

Don’t forget to check out the other DD geniuses xx

An InLinkz Link-up

Digit-al Dozen Dotting Days - Jumbo Dots!

Hi Goddesses

Today sees one of my favourite looks of this week – Jumbo Dots.

I’ve always loved it when I’ve seen super large dots in other people’s manis, but I’ve never succeeded in getting them to work myself.  Until now mwahahahahah.  My weapons of choice?  The eraser on the end of a pencil and the end of a Berol pen.  Whatever you choose, I’d just recommend you practice first.  You need a little puddle to blob in, and from there you need to make sure you get full coverage on your “tool”, but not so much that you leave an irregular shape.

This mani became an excuse to use a shitload of bright colours and have fun.  I do honestly think it might be one of the happiest manis I’ve ever done – just looking at it makes me smile.

On base I have Literary Lacquers Tesseract, for no other reason than I was swatching it at the time.  For my colours, I used –

Barry M Lemon Ice Cream

Rimmel Ultra Violet

OPI Hot & Spicy

OPI Strawberry Margarita

W7 Neon Green

I like the overlapping of the dots, and I’m curious to see what this looks like in blue – whether it looks oceanic or just blue lol.

Tomorrow, you can see how I took this mani further, and further again :)   Don’t forget to check out the other DD geniuses xx

An InLinkz Link-up

Digit-al Dozen DOES Love and Heartbreak - Love Hearts

Hi Goddesses

This is one of those manis that literally BEGGED to be done.  The polishes lined themselves up in a little row and then jumped, one by one, onto the stamping plate, singing "meeee, meeeee".   True story.

I do love this, and whilst it's not a splodgerama (no sponge), it's as easy as pie can be.

This started as a base of Elevation Polish Alphubel.    On top of this, I then randomly dabbed various pastels - Barry M Bright Pink, Mint Green, Lemon Ice Cream and Berry Ice Cream.

I then took my white Konad polish and my stamping plate - this one comes from MJ6 which is available in the Etsy store My Online Shop (just a note, that's not MY on line shop, just the name of the store lol).

This mani is sooooo kitsch and so happy - totally cute and I love it :)

See you tomorrow, when the Digit-al Dozen meets Work Wear Wednesday! xxx