Digit-al Dozen Does Nail Heroes; Day 4

Continuing with the theme of nail heroes, today I am honouring all the nail art plate makers!  When I started stamping years ago, at the time, there was only Konad plates and few fauxnads.  Some of the very first "indie" if you will plate makers were Chez Delaney with the D plates, Dashica with the A-D series, and FAB/early MJ plates (which were the combined work of the ladies now behind FAB UR Nails {who now has FUN plates} and MyOnLineShop {who has MJ plates} if I recall correctly).  Since then, we have BundleMonster, Wistonia, Cheeky, FAB UR NAILS, MyOnLineShop, Creative, Moyra, Girly Bits, It Girl, Delush, NailMatinee, Nail Art Diva, Nailways, Hot Topic, Betina, BFF, Apipila, Lily Anna, Messy Mansion, Cheeky Beauty, Marinanne Nails, Lilic, NailzCraze, Sugar Bubbles, Vivid Lacquer, MoYou, MoYou London, Born Pretty, Essense, Mango, UberChic, Pueen, CICI & SISI, DRK, Emily de Molly, B. Loves, Red Angel, Mash, LLC, Pueen, Mundo de Unas, Rica, Wistonia.....did I forget anyone?  Some of these makers are companies; some are just one person who does it all.  Some are no longer around or are no longer making plates and others are brand new on the market.  And don't forget that if there's an image you can't find, there's always Fig Tree Stamps who will make you your own plate!  We stampers have never had so many options!  As a long time stamper, I thank all of you!   You collectively are my nail heroes as otherwise we'd all be using Konad plates and the A, T, H, XL plates, etc. that were only available back in the day!  I can't pick a favourite brand; it would be like picking which one of my children is my favourite and that's just not right! I do find that I may go through ebbs and flows of using a plate brand; I may use a lot of a makers plates for a period of time, then might not use them again for months; it isn't that I don't love them any less, just that they may not have the images that I'm looking for at the moment.  

For my nail hero mani, I've put my spin on a mani from the last blog post from FAB UR Nails blog, simply because she is one of the few makers who actually actively does mani's.  Here's what I came up with!

Here's my mani inspiration from FAB UR NAILS, photo credit to FAB UR NAILS

For the base, I thought I'd attempt a water marble; in fact, this mani was my very first time! (Although I shared one a few days ago, this mani was done first and the Valentine's Day one was my second).  This is two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and what I thought was sufficient Girly Bits Border Patrol but it wasn't as I had polish much further down my fingers as well as on the backside of my fingers.  I still need to figure this part out.

Used polishes from Pipe Dream A Night In Vegas collection for the water marble.

The water marble mess!  I don't know why the water marble has the little bubble looking drops on it in places (see index finger) or why it bubbled and broke (see middle finger) as not experienced enough in this nor did I do a lot of online research for tips and tricks, but if anyone happens to know, I'd love the answer! Overall though, I was pretty happy how this turned out for my first attempt!  I also think some of the better parts of the design went on my skin but I hope with more practise, placing it on the nail will get better, just like with stamping.

After clean up.

Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC before stamping.

Stamped using Funky Fingers Dark Knight using an image from MJ III.

Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC to finish.

I look forward to how far this nail stamping journey will go and the continued release of some amazing nail art images from all the plate makers!  

Here are the other ladies Day 4 nail heroes!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen, Books; Day 5

****WARNING - SEXUALLY EXPLICIT IMAGES ON POST **** 

The Day 5 mani is based upon Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James.  I'm posting this warning at the top of the page because my mani is sexual in nature; therefore, if this type of mani/post offends you, or you are on your computer and there are minors present, you have warning before the post is clicked. 

This is what I came up with!

Started out with a base of assorted greys; all are two coats and topped with SV.  Starting at thumb and going clockwise, the polishes are Sinful Colors Cool Gray, Kit Grey Pearling, Barry M Grey, Dance Legend #1, and Ulta Concrete Evidence.

Stamped with black Konad special polish using MJ II (ring), LS-03 (index) and Handy 36 (thumb, middle and pinky).  MJ III was used for the chains on the index and thumb.

Added a few random dots using red Konad special polish throughout; the gray on the middle is Sinful Colors Cool Gray.

Topped with SV.

I'm glad that the book challenge gave me a *valid* reason to use the Handy 36 plate as these images are ones I'd usually put on my nails otherwise!  lol!

Here's the other ladies Day 5 mani's.....so much creativity!!!

Have a great weekend....and thanks for looking!

Earth Day Mani!

Yesterday's FB Adventures in Stamping challenge was Earth Day.  This is the mani I did for the challenge, which I thought I'd post today as it is Earth Day!

Started with a base of two coats of OPI Bride's Bouquet and Generation Baby Blue, topped with SV.

Stamped using assortment of plates; MJ III (recycle images on thumb using green Konad special polish), FUN 2 (world on thumb using blue Konad special polish), RA-115 (tree on index using green Konad and Kiko), W104 (middle image using blue, yellow and red Konad special polishes), SdP 75 (ring using blue Konad special polish) and CH33 (pinky, using Dashica green stamping polish).

Added a few images for filler; D15 (sun and clouds on  index), D16 (moon and stars on middle), T28 (butterfly on index and ring), SdP 74 (ladybug and bee on ring), W104 (butterflies on ring) all using assortment of Konad special polishes.  Also stamped in small flowers at bottom of tree on index using Mash-08.

Topped with SV.

Just to give you an idea of how many times this mani was stamped, there are nine individual stamps on the index finger, seven on the thumb, six on the index, and six on the middle.  The pinky was stamped once and if this is all added up, this mani was stamped a total of 29 times to create this look! 

Thanks for looking!

Pink Panther Mani!

This weeks FB Adventures in Stamping challenge is using 2 different stamps in a mani.  I asked if I could use more than 2 or if I'd be thrown out...they said OK....so this is what I came up with.

Started with a base of FingerPaints Black Expressionism and CND Taffy Pink on alternating fingers; each are two coats.  Topped with SV.

Stamped using MJ III (thumb), Apipila 01 (Pink Panter face on index and ring), HB14 (paw prints on middle), Konad m18 (PP on middle) and BM19 (dots on pinky).  Stamping polishes used were Konad black special polish and FUN pink (my bottle says Cotton Candy on it)...which stamps amazingly over black as you can see!  It's like a stamping dream come true....brights that stamp well over dark colours!  (I have a few more posts coming up using these brights over dark polishes...so cool...really opens up stamping options IMHO!!  It's been one of my stamping wants for a long, long time!)

Added random pink and black dots as filler using same stamping polishes.

Topped with SV.

Is it just me, or is it every time I see Pink Panther, I go BA, DA DA, DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DAAAAAAAAAAAA DADA DA in my head?  You too? lol!

I've also added a tab on my home page now that links to the various etailers that plates and polishes can be had...so if you are interested in knowing where to get Apipila, MJ, FUN or BM, please go here!

Hope you're having a great weekend....thanks for looking!