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

NEW31DC Day 26 - Inspired By Your Country

Hi Goddesses

The final days of the NEW31DC are drawing in, and to be honest, today's was a bit of a stumper for me .... until I saw my inspiration HERE.   

Jin's Buckingham Palace soldiers masterpiece was created for a Where In The World Challenge, and was just perfect for today.  As you can see, my mani is not as clean and crisp as hers, and there's a very specific reason for that.

As my base I am wearing one of the new Nails Inc Concrete polishes - this bright slightly-off red is called Marble Arch (all the Concretes will be on the blog in the next week).   Like the Liquid Sands, they're textured ... and as I started to nail art over them, it all went a bit wrong lol.

Because the surface isn't smooth, clean lines were really difficult.  It was like hitting pot holes when you're driving lol.  Nevertheless, the texture does fit with the soldier's uniform, so it's not a total loss.

It is possible to nail art over these Concretes, but not like this, and again, there will be a post on this very shortly.

Enjoy xx :)

NEW31DC Day 25 - Inspired By Your Childhood

Hi Goddesses

Ooooh, I think today has been a tricky one for a lot of people.  Inspired By Your Childhood - memories, adventures, school, toys?

All along I knew I wanted to pay homage to my childhood teddy bear, Rosebud.   Executing said mani was not as easy, and this is version 2 (version 1 was so bad I didn't even take photos lol).

I don't have a photo of Rosebud, but he was my loyal companion between the ages of 3 and about 7 or 8.  As an only child, my cuddly toys were especially important, and Rosebud was bought on holiday.  He was slightly larger than other teddies I owned, had VERY fluffy eyelashes, and a blue flower on his belly button - hence the name.

I remember him being quiet matted (I probably drooled on him every night), and so a textured base was my starting point.  Version 1 had a saran wrap, but I couldn't get the colour contrast right, but then Nails Inc Concrete arrived and - ta-dah!

I'll be showing you the Concretes very soon.  This is the hideous yellow one, and I painted over it with OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh ?   What's interesting about the Concretes is how they retain their texture despite layering.

I then used my blue dried flowers from eBay to recreate Rosebud's belly button :)

Aaaaaand we're into the last week of the Challenge!  See you tomorrow xx :)