NEW31DC - Final Day! Recreate Someone Else's Mani

Hi Goddesses

Sob .... sob ..... sniff .... sob.  It's the last day!!  I'm gutted!  I've enjoyed this challenge sooooooo much that I'm really sorry to see it end.    I'll do a round-up post over the weekend, but for now, I leave you with my mani inspired by Jin from Superficially Colourful.

I love simple nail art, and there's nothing much simpler than a dotting tool.  I also love ruffle manis, and I've done several of them, but it blew my mind when I saw Jin post THIS orange one.  An orange ruffle - wow!

It hadn't even occurred to me that I might own enough oranges to do a ruffle justice, but I did!  (surprise)  There were also different shades, tones and textures - I really think polishes with different finishes are the key to a great ruffle.

So what polishes do we have in the mix then ?  Well the base is The Arches by Elevation Polish, a stunning brick terracotta.  2 KIKOs, 368 and 236, Icing Funky Femme, a super bright glitter, Essie Chubby Cheeks, w7 Burnt Amber and the sensational holo-tasticness of Enkelini Lainey Lou. 

The win of this mani is totally in the textures, and in something quite accidental.  Usually, my holo stripe has been in the middle, to break things up, but quite accidentally it was the last layer I added this time, and wow oh wow does it make it pop.

I can't believe how much drama and light there is in some of these photos - just - wow, I'm gobsmacked and super happy.

So that's it.  It's over.  Thank YOU for reading.  Thank you Ashley for designing the poster.  Thanks to all the amazing ladies who took part and .... if you thought it looked fun, why not join in ?   It starts all over again TOMORROW when the slow version heads out of town.  Same challenges, but at a pace of 2 manis per week.  If you want to take part, just come and join the Crumpet's Nail Tarts, or click the logo in the top left.

Lots of love - see you for a round up at the weekend xxx

NEW31DC Day 30 - Your Favourite Nail Art Technique

Hi Goddesses

Oh I'm so sad that tomorrow's our last day!  I've really enjoyed this challenge and had so much fun with it, as well as being blown away by the manis the other ladies have posted.

I realised recently that splatter is probably my favourite art technique, as well as one of the ones I am best at.  It ALWAYS makes me smile and feel happy, and I also love the element of surprise it provides - you're never *quite* sure how it will turn out :)

This mani was born when I was prepping for Digit-al Dozen Art Week, and I was thinking of just using primary colours.  I'm not quite sure how that became a splatter, but this is undoubtedly one the most dramatic splatters I've ever created.

There's something about this mani that just POPS.  It's so bold and cheerful and brazen :)  wow it makes me happy just to look at it.

The base is my usual - OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls - and then I think I used Barry M red, blue and yellow for the primary colours.

Hope you like - tomorrow we go out in a blaze of - ooops! mustn't spoil the surprise!  xxx

NEW31DC Day 29 - Inspired By Another Blogger

Hi Goddesses

Today's Challenge is to be inspired by another blogger, and today's mani is an homage to the lovely Laurie at Dressed Up Digits.   For those of you who don't know her, Laurie is a stamping goddess, drawn to duochromes and stamping patterns with chains or zips on them lol.

So when I saw this pattern on MJ8, I immediately thought of Laurie :)   It's a stamp she's either got or got different versions of, and I'm sure if you check her blog you'll see numerous versions of this pattern!

I stamped over the glorious Night Before Christmas from Duri, giving it a blood red and passionate twist :)

Only 2 days left !!!

NEW31DC Day 28 - Inspired By Your Favourite Colour

Hi Goddesses

Hmmmmm so today was the day I realised this challenge had a lot of dupes in it - whoops!  Fave polish, fave colour family and now fave colour.  All so samey, but you can't be samey on a challenge, can you ?

In the end I decided to compromise and do a gradient using possibly my favourite polish of all time - OPI DS Original - and my favourite polish of 2011 - a-England Lady of the Lake.   Oh and then add a giraffe.  As you do.

In reality, this gradient was more subtle than I expected.  Next to each other, the two polishes have several degrees of separation, yet if you didn't know it, I don't think you'd realise there was a gradient happening here.

I then added one of my favourite stamps - the giraffe from BM-313.  Ah, he make me happy!

Overall, I quite like this mani, but it has less impact than I expected.  Holographic, yes; clearly 2-tone, no :(

Enjoy xx :)

NEW31DC Day 27 - Inspired By You

Hi Goddesses

Boy did I make this one difficult on myself!  Everyone knows my defining colour is purple (did that in 30 Days of Purple) and that my defining style is a Splodger (did a Splodgerama tutorial recently).

So that kind of left me puzzling for a bit - too long and too hard actually - so in the end I just decided to do what should be done, and do a purple splodgerama lol.

Small recap - splodgerama involves sponging colours semi-randomly onto your nails to create an overall effect which is splodgey.

As I'd used so many of my favourite colours in November, I decided to do an exclusively KIKO splodgerama.    KIKO ROCK at blues and purples so it was an easy choice.  Unfortunately, KIKO don't really name their polishes, so here are those sexy numbers - 

As always, I picked the palest colour as my base, and then started sponging on the other colours, starting with the darkest.  I left the sparkly KIKO til the end, as I wanted that to catch the light of the camera.

Finally, I went back and dabbed teeny amounts of colour here and there to balance out the overall effect.  Et voila.

Super easy, super lazy.  I love 'em!!

Enjoy - tomorrow it's inspired by your favourite colour ..... hhhhmmmm .... xx