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 :)

Digit-al Dozen does ... ART ..... Jackson Pollock

Hi Goddesses

As you may have guessed, I've found this challenge quite ... challenging lol, and quite by accident, a few of the Dozen had decided to do Jackson Pollock nails.   He, for those of you who don't know, used to do massive splatter paintings, and as a lover of splatter, I was very tempted.

However, I already had a gazillion ideas, PLUS I have about 3 splatters I'm showing this month on the 31DC, so, I acted holier than thou and declared I didn't need to "cheat" and do easy peasy JP nails lol.

Roll forward a few days.  Crumpet is now in despair over Art Week.  Crumpet no longer likes any of the images she pinned as inspiration PLUS 2 of the manis she has tried have resembled half a turd each so .... yeh, I caved.  JP here we are!!

To be fair, this is possibly the best splatter I've ever done.  And it actually looks fairly similar to the real thing - Jackson Pollock Number 8 - look !!!

This is a base of KIKO 325 Grey Green, which was just perfect for this mani.  I then splattered the various colours used in the painting, using OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh, CG Papaya Punch and CG Life Preserver for the orange tones, and OPI Black Onyx.

The key to this splatter was the layering of the colours, and layering them in the right order.  Papaya Punch is the lighter of the 2 oranges, and I didn't want it to pop too much, so that went on quite early, so that it could be partly covered by the other colours.

Today is also the first day you are officially seeing photos from my new lighting set up.  I finally got a natural light bulb for the nail room, and also got myself some black felt - don't you think black backgrounds look more dramatic ?  I've included a few of the "old style" photos too - which do you prefer ?

It's taken me quite a few days to get to a point where I feel the pictures are "decent", albeit still not quite perfect.  It's been an interesting journey with a lot of learning points, and I'll be sharing them in a couple of weeks in the Blogger Boot Camp posts.

Finally, it does amuse me that out of those of us who have done splatters today, at least 3 of us have chosen the exact same Jackson Pollock painting as inspiration - telepathy of the mani nerds !!  Lol.

Enjoy xx :)

Sat-ART-Day Club - Vampires

Hi Goddesses

I'm late, I'm late, I know, but as I write this, it's 23.43, so technically, I'm not overdue lol.

Today's theme is Vampires, and I desperately wanted to do something cool and different .... but didn't.  I've seen some great manis inspired by the new vampire mythologies, but for me, the best will always be the Anne Rice series which begins with Interview With A Vampire.  Those books are so decadent and sensuous, they are unlike anything else.  Maybe I will do them proper homage another time.

So, in the end we have a very simple vampire mani, probably inspired by a lot of other vampire manis I've seen over the last year.   It uses OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh as the base, and OPI Royal Rajah Ruby as the blood (it's perfect for that dried blood look).

My favourite nail is the middle - 2 puncture marks.   The thumb shows a bloodied tooth.  The index some blood drips (I'm currently watching back to back Dexter, it was sooooo hard not to splatter lol).   The ring is blood dripping from sated lips, and the pinkie ... didn't work out .... I wanted to go for when they take a chunk out of the forearm and suck on the veins ... but ... yeh ....

Don't forget to check out the other members of Crumpets Nail Tarts below.

Enjoy xx :)

Happy Birthday Crumpet !!!!

Hi Goddesses

Well, today is my birthday, and I thought it would be fun to do a little tongue-in-cheek post about ..... Crumpets !!!  And look, I did Crumpet nail art too !!!

So, first of all, what IS a Crumpet?  Well, in England it has 2 meanings - it is either a breakfast food OR the name for a hot tottie :)  Today's post is all about the BREAKFAST variety lol.  This is what a Crumpet looks like - 

It's basically a round thick lump of loveliness that you put in the toaster.  It has a semi-thick / chewy consistency - imagine a really thick pancake.  I prefer to toast them twice - this way the outside gets really hard and I just find it has a better texture all round.

Most people just put butter on theirs.  I also use marmite.  Butter and sugar can be quite nice.  Butter and jam, or lemon curd.   Oh, and if you're patient, you can even make the equivalent of eggy bread with them.   

Personally, I think the best UK brand is Warburtons - nothing else compares; they have the texture PERFECTED !!!

Ok .... on to the mani!  Lol, this actually took a lot of care and attention, especially for me, so I'm going to show how much effort I put into this !!!

1.  base coat then 2 coats of OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh ?

2.  this didn't quite give a pale enough base so I layered it with 1 coat of Nails Inc Colville Mews, a milky jelly

3.  I then used my Konad m57 leopard print stamp and stamped twice, not one over the other, but across, so that you could see both colours.  I used CG Desert Sun and OPI Wooden Shoe Like To Know

4.  I then used CG Call of the Wild to add some random darker patches, very irregularly, and then I did frames using the same polish, as the rim of a Crumpet always gets nicely burnt mmmmmm

5.  When THAT was dry, I made my butter.  This was done using 5 parts clear polish, 2 parts Colville Mews and 1 part CG Lemon Fizz.  And I added it sloppily, like real butter

See, for me that's a helluva lotta work !!!  I love how the butter glaze is uneven, just like real butter.

I hope you can tell it's a buttered Crumpet, Beth really wasn't so sure!

Lol, enjoy xx :)