Hi Goddesses
This week is the 3rd anniversary of the Digit-al Dozen, and to celebrate, we are celebrating EACH OTHER by re-creating each other's manis.
Now this sounds like a fun enterprise .... until you realise a few things -
* I alone have done 175 DD manis, which means in total there are about 2500 manis to choose from!
* some of our ladies have serious skills. Lindsey, as much as I love you, I just can't go there lol
* loving a mani and being able to replicate it are 2 entirely different things .....
In choosing this week's manis I either went for manis which looked Crumpet-y or those which knocked me sideways with a "why didn't *I* think of that" wail.
Today's mani is a recreation of a mani Hannah from Dalai Lama's Nails did for childhood week, which I think I sat out as I was "on a break". Hannah did this amazing blue mani to create bubbles, and I instantly feel in love with it.
Turns out recreating this was not as easy as I'd hoped! I don't know whether it was my brand of acrylics, but I had real trouble getting my bubbles to a) sit still and b) develop an outer ring, like Hannah's. It wasn't till I matte-d my red bubbles and then added some purple ones that I felt I got something workable.
I chose to keep mine matte, and whilst I love my colour combo, overall I prefer Hannah's - her bubbles have a depth and a life to them that mine lack.
This is going to be a really fun week, so make sure you check out what everybody else has done.
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!
Hi Goddesses
Today's design draws from a technique I have seen a lot lately, and one very specific mani I saw on More Nail Polish.
The technique involves dotting the nail with very thinned out polish or acrylic paint, and soaking up the excess with a cotton bud. Once it dries, it creates this amazing see-through effect.
You've probably mostly seen it as bubbles, but a couple of weeks ago, Cathy used it to create ghosts for the Supernatural prompt in the 31 Day Challenge. Because she is way more talented than me, her shapes look human, whilst mine look .... let's be kind and say scarily inhuman lol.
I think I was scared of the runniness of my acrylic paint, and that I wouldn't be able to control it enough to create a defined shape. My first nail was the middle one, and you can see how I just chickened out and went for an amorphous blob lol.
By the time I'd got going, I felt more in control, and I LOVE my cat. I added some red eyes for max spookiness - this is definitely a technique I'll be returning to.
Hi Goddesses
Happy Hump Day everyone! As I just realised, the best thing about Wednesday is that it's Thursday tomorrow, which means we're practically at the weekend lol.
Today's mani is one I have been meaning to do for aaaaaages. Emily of the DD has a signature mani she does on her blog, and I have always loved it for it's imprecision and simplicity. She calls it the Splash Floral and you can frequently see it on her blog, The Lacquerologist.
I used all Barry M polishes for mine - Coconut for the base, Pink Punch for the ... er, pink, and Elderberry for the blue. The black outlines came via acrylic paint.
I started with a very small piece of sponge and some tweezers, and dabbed my polish on. I then took the polish as sparse as it would go to create the very fragile splattery edges of my flowers.
I then used the acrylic to create my petals (as you can perhaps tell, these are MUCH easier to draw at the tip of the nail than at the cuticle end lol) and finally used my drying brush to dab in the centre of the flower.
I'm so happy I finally did this mani. Emily has done endless variations over the last year or so ... and now I will be doing too mwahahahahah.
Hi Goddesses
You may or may not know, but my Pinterest collection is quite huge. It's only nail related, but there's a LOT in there, and as the saying goes, not a lot comes out!
I've been trying to make more of an effort to turn things I've pinned into actual manis, and this one was inspired by this print -
Originally, I was going to do this on top of Barry M Mustard, and I don't really know why I changed that to China Glaze All Aboard, but I sure do like the purple version.
I started by making some weird blobby, semi-triangular shapes in white, and then added a centre of Cadillacquer Maybe Tomorrow, a beautiful smokey lilac.
After that had dried, I added centre dots of Morgan Taylor Sitting Pretty, and finally, I added petals with green acrylic paint.
I'm actually quite chuffed with this one. It's more ambitious than a lot of the nail art I do, and I really love how it all pulls together.
Don't forget to check out the other awesome ladies!
