Digit-al Dozen, Books; Day 1

It's Book Week for the Digit-al Dozen; here's the mani I came up to kick it off!

Started with a base of two coats of Borghese Almondine; no topcoat.  Two coats wasn't quite enough to give full coverage but I knew I'd be sponging and stamping on top so left it.  I'm on the fence is this colour is for me...maybe as a neutral base for layering.  It just seems at odds with my skin tone.  Blah!

Sponged using an assortment of polishes; Barry M Mushroom, Essie Brooch The Subject and CQ Vintage.  I was going for the look of old paper that one would find in an old book.  Not sure if this translated into what I was going for though!

Stamped using Konad S2 (thumb), BM311 (ring), VL003 (middle) and MJ XVIII (index and pinky).  The stamping polishes used were red and black Konad special polishes and Kiko 323 for the brown (an awesome brown for stamping!)

I filled in the cross on the book image on the thumb from the S2 stamp as I just wanted a book, not the Bible...every plate image like this had a cross on it.  Topped with SV (first pix). 

I found this weeks challenge...a challenge! Not that I'm not a reader; I am in fact an avid reader....I read one of the books I'll be featuring this week in its entirety this past weekend...and finished another book and started another too! I'm so much of a reader that I purposely read mainly during the weekends. The reason for this is because I'm one of those readers that can't put a book down if it's any good...and before I know it, its 4 am!  I learned a long time ago that I would read well into the night; which really means until the wee hours of the morning, if given a good book...which made me very sleepy for work the next day when going in after only a couple hours sleep. So I limit myself to the weekends in the interest of getting some sleep!

This is my nightstand where I spend my weekends during the summer months....just a few books waiting to be read!  So I read mainly on the weekends when it doesn't matter usually what time I get up in the morning...or during the day relaxing on the deck with a coffee...another favourite pass time!  The problem I had with the challenge is translating some of the books I've read recently into a mani...but I have a couple mani's done and a couple more ideas so I think I'll be good for the week!

This mani also featured a new to me plate, being the MJ XVIII, which I've used here for the first time.  Here's a few pix of the images on plate. 

These new MJ plates are available here!  They are also available via Ninja Polish here.  A few of the new plates have some misetched images and are discounted here. (pssst....please check back for upcoming giveaways of a few of these plates!)

Here's the other ladies Day 1 Book Mani's...much more creative than my boring books! 

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Thanks for looking!