The Digit-al Dozen 2nd Anniversary Week - China Patterns

Hi Goddesses

Welcome to day 4 of Digit-al Dozen Week, as chosen by you, and today you chose china patterns, as apparently they are an alternative gift on 2^nd anniversaries.

I’ve done a china pattern once before – with stamping – and desperately wanted to do something different, but Google images was not in my favour.  No matter what I searched for, I came up with the same navyish floral somethings, so that’s where we are!

The base for this was good ole OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and I used a Konad electric blue for the stamping (and threw a mini strop that it paled so much in the process.)

This stamp was from MoYou Mother Nature plate 11 and whilst I LIKED them, they seemed well … boring.

I debated what to do, and eventually decided plates have rims, so I drew myself a little border around each nail – and look how much darker the Konad is now!  Miaow.

I still can’t decide which version I prefer.  I am not very good at ruffians, and I am also not sure they suit me.  Sometimes I still think the pure stamping version looks boring, other times I think it looks crisp and cool lol.  And then I go oooooh at the more dramatic rimmed version and ugh at my wobbly lines.

Still – at least I took photos of both!!!  Which version is your favourite?

Don’t forget to check out the other DD goddesses below - 

An InLinkz Link-up

Digit-al Dozen Does BLUE - China Patterns

Hi Goddesses

Sorry for the mess I have made of our scheduled programming :(  I have been battling bad sinuses most of the week and then last night they completely floored me.  Won.  Destroyed me.  I've spent most of the day sleeping, or shuffling around like a sloth in slo-mo.  The pain is like nothing else on earth.

One of the amazing things about doing this is the amazing nail polish community, and I am seriously staggered by how many women also suffer sinus and migraine problems.  Mine are either caused by an infection or, like this time, a dramatic shift in the weather.  I've been waiting 3 days for the sky to completely empty of rain.  For those of you who've never experienced sinus pain, trust me when I say nothing else compares - it's solid, immovable, vicious and inescapable.  Misery indeed.

So this is the first of many catch up posts - this is what I had planned for my DD Day 4 post on Thursday.  Luckily it was already half-written.  This is really simple - white base, stamp with colour - but also really effective.

As I hope you can tell, this is desgined to look like china plates or porcelain.  I used the amazing OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls for my base, and then stamped using Konad neon blue.  In the bottle, the Konad is as dark as Baker Street, so I'm disappointed it came out as light as it did here, but hey ho.

I tortured myself trying to find the right stamping pattern for this.  I KNOW I saw someone do a mani like this maybe 4 or 6 weeks ago, but I can't find it ANYWHERE.   In the end, I ended up settling on this pattern from DRK-B.

I love the overall effect, and hopefully it does look like a china pattern!  Finally, if you really want to blow your mind, go and click HERE and check out the similar mani Chalkboard Nails did .... FREEHAND.  Yup, she's that good ggrrrrrrr.

Enjoy xx :)

Stamping Week - Disco Biscuit

Hi Goddesses

When it comes to the end of the year, and I tell you about my favourite polishes of 2012, Butter London Disco Biscuit will be right up there.   

A gorgeous squishy pink jelly, this fizzes with life and fun and is just hummana mummana gorgeous.

Truth be told, it's too pretty to stamp over, but certain people (Spellbinding Sarah) keep yelling "STAMP ON IT" at me, so I decided to fun it up with a Konad powder blue polish and Cheeky Plate 11.

Like most of the others you've seen this week, this mani is a few weeks old, and fell right in the middle of my "aaarrgghhhh is it too much to ask for this stamping thing to work" phase.

For the most part this works, but the pattern isn't as crisp as I would have wanted it, the thumb is a mess again (are they really THAT huge ?), and the ring finger - well, I must be getting better, cos if that happened today I would have redone the ring finger.  Yay, I finally have standards!

This was a bright, fun mani.  The pink and the blue popped beautifully together.  

Enjoy xx :)