Halloween Stamping! A England Bridal Veil over Above the Curve Donna

This is a bit of a sneaky post as technically I should blog Above the Curve Donna first, but I really wanted to do a Halloween mani and time was running out, so I'll blog the beautiful Donna tomorrow, or very soon!
So, stamping... I decided to do a Halloween mani and CICI&SISI plate 10 has some cute Halloween images, as well as some cool cobwebs. I tried the small images but they refused to place themselves nicely on my nails, possibly not their fault?, so I reverted to my original plan of cobwebs on all my nails. You'll see from the picture of the plate there is a quadrant of cobweb, which I had planned to use but it was obviously not my day for stamping, I really couldn't centre it properly so that it would radiate nicely so I went for the full web instead.
I didn't try too hard to centre this one, I didn't mind if they were offset a bit and I am reasonably pleased with the end result, but yet again, by the time I had faffed around finding a polish that would stamp nicely over Donna, and redone everything too many times, the sun had gone down and I am left with desk lamp photos again.
I ended up using A England Bridal Veil, as the black I'd intended to use just wasn't dark enough, and I think it works quite well over the orange holo of Above the Curve Donna.

Updated Saturday, 1 November - added a couple of daylight shots.

Halloween Stamping! A England Bridal Veil
over Above the Curve Donna 

 

 
 

 

A2Z Series - A is for Angles

Well, the big day is here! This is the first day of a new challenge, and I was very excited to be asked to join in with this latest A2Z series, although I have to say, the closer the day got the more nervous I was!
Anyway, the prompt is Angles, and I decided as I am newly into stamping I'd look for a good image that included angles. I found this wonderfully geometric one with overlapping chevrons on CICI&SISI 08 so that's what I have used today. I really like this image, it's quite Art Deco I think! My base is 2 coats of Nails Inc Kate Spade New York Noir, and I have stamped with Too Fancy Lacquer Prima Donna. This polish stamped really well, I haven't worn it before but it looks like it would give excellent coverage and has a really strong holo.
The pale silvery lilac holo looks great against the black in bright light, although it does fade to a greyish shimmer in lower levels of light. I got caught out by the sun setting too quickly and had to take my pictures indoors which is a real shame but otherwise I am quite pleased with how this turned out.

A is for Angles -
Too Fancy Lacquer Prima Donna
and Nails Inc New York Noir

 

 

 

daylight - no sun!

 

Look HERE to see what everyone else got up to, and click on the InLinkz too  - sorry, the thumbnail pics won't come up on my post.

An InLinkz Link-up

Stamping! A England Briarwood and Dragon over Above the Curve Akiko

I've been stamping again. I really am enjoying this, despite many frustrations along the way.
When I painted my nails with Above the Curve Akiko, I was already planning what I might stamp over it once I'd worn it for a day. I have a couple of floral dresses that Akiko would go well with but I wanted to pick up another colour from the dresses to stamp with. I wanted to stick with autumnal shades, choose something that would stand out well enough but still tone with the base colour. I went to my A England polishes since so far they seem to have been enormously successful for stamping. In terms of colours I thought would go well with the dresses and Akiko I really couldn't choose between Dragon and Briarwood, so I used both!
I stamped the roses from Moyou London Pro XL 10, using Dragon for half the image, and Briarwood for the other half. I wasn't too fussy about getting them exactly equal, just allowed it to happen and I am delighted with the results and the way the 2 colours worked together. I am still not great at using the right pressure to scrape the image so I think the right hand was better, and I feel I am making progress.
I think I've ended up with a very autumnal mani, and far better than had hoped for. I am really pleased with this!

Stamping!  A England Briarwood
and Dragon over Above the Curve Akiko

 

 

 

  

 

Above the Curve Akiko

Today's polish is from Above the Curve's Falling for Autumn Collection from 2013. Akiko is a fabulous orange holo, perfect for Autumn, and the name is Japanese for Bright Autumn Child, which I think is lovely.
I got this along with 3 others from a wonderful lady who was destashing. I have to admit to not being 100% certain about this one as orange is not really a colour I wear. I now have 5 oranges - 3 of which I have bought in the last couple of months!
Of the 4 that I bought from this particular destash, the other 3 are definitely "me" polishes so I did the right thing and decided to try this one first. I am so glad I tried it, and that I bought it as I love it! Obviously it looks pretty in the bottle but then pretty much anything holo is going to look pretty in the bottle, and then it is Above the Curve and they only make fantastic polishes, but at the end of the day there is no guarantee that everything will look good with every skin tone. However, this one is lovely. Although bright orange in some lights, it also seems to shift through from a soft gold to a delicate copper shade and I think it is that slight pinkyness of the copper that makes this wearable for me. That and the fact that the holo is really strong and extremely pretty!
This painted on really nicely. The nail line is barely visible after the second coat, and more apparent on the photos than in real life. If I was going to wear this on its own for a few days I might well have added a 3rd coat, but as I have a plan to stamp over it tomorrow, I decided it was fine with 2.
This is such a lovely polish, especially for this time of the year and as always with Above the Curve, wonderful quality.

Above the Curve Akiko

 

 

 

 

My orange collection

Super-long Sleeves (Armwarmers)

Whilst I was looking around in Crafts from the Cwtch, downloading the pattern for the Cwtchy Cable Armwarmers, I came across another pattern for armwarmers, or Super-long Sleeves.
These are basically just very long ribbed tubes, with a slit for the thumb, and it struck me that if it's tucked up inside a jumper, this very simple pattern would be perfect. I could use any double knitting wool that I had, even if it wasn't that pretty as they'd mostly be out of sight.
I had a ball of double knitting wool left over from when I knitted an advent calendar for my sister a few years back, a dark green which I had bought for the main tree, so I dug it out. It's just a value brand, Teddy Avril, but actually it's a lovely deep bottle green (pine coloured obviously) and it knitted up nicely, so I thought I'd use that. I only had 100g and I wasn't sure if it was quite enough but I figured if weighed it as I went along I could stop at 50g and start the next one. As it is I do have a bit left over and I am really pleased with the finished sleeves. I made these to go from just below my elbows, so just a bit shorter than the pattern intended. They fit well, the ribbed pattern is great for being stretchy and flexible, I will be making these again I think!
The camera seems to think these are teal rather than bottle green, and also doesn't like the contrast between pale skin and dark green wool, but poor camera skills aside, I am happy with these although my choice of nail varnish for modelling is obviously not one of my better matches :)

Super-long Sleeves

 

Cwtchy Cable Armwarmers

Another recently completed project for a friend, these arm warmers are so lovely I really didn't want to send them off. In fact once I'd finished them I posted them so quickly in case I changed my mind that I forgot to take proper photos so I only have pictures of one that I took part way through to check that my friend was happy with them.
I can't actually remember how I found the pattern for these. They are on Ravelry but I think I came across them via google and fell in love with the website Crafts from the Cwtch, and the lovely patterns on there. Cwtch is a welsh word for a cuddle, in case you were wondering and as my husband is welsh, it is a word that is in common usage in our family.
I knitted these in Sirdar Click DK, in Duffler - a coffee/walnut shade that makes them even yummier!!!
They knitted up really nicely. They don't have thumbs, but they do have a slit for the thumb so you can wear them as gloves if you choose or push them further up your arms, or, as I do when it's cold, tuck your thumb inside and just wear them as over-long sleeves :)
Next time there is a gap in my knitting schedule I am definitely making a pair for me me me!!!

Cwtchy Cable Armwarmers

 

 

Cabled Fingerless Gloves...in orange!

With the return of the colder weather, I have recently made a few pairs of gloves - not all for me. The pair I am showing you today were for a friend, who requested them to be in a bright colour, like ... ORANGE!! Not a colour I would normally choose to knit with, and I had nothing suitable in my stash. Luckily I managed to do a deal with another friend to acquire some orange wool and these are what I made.
As usual, I went to Ravelry with a rough idea of what sort of pattern I was after, cables certainly as I love knitting cables and I found Cabled Fingerless Gloves by Kira Gerrits. They have a 2 stitch cable either side of a 6 stitch cable.
The wool I used was Stylecraft double knit Special, in Jaffa and it is almost neon! These gloves were quick and easy to make, and despite the colour I was quite fond of them by the time I posted them off. They barely used any wool, just over 30g so excellent if you have any oddments lying around and perfect for this time of year.

Cabled Fingerless Gloves

 

Stamping! A England Lancelot over saran wrap mani

Oh no, the 3rd posting with the same mani! Sorry - this will be the last one, but this was going to just be a trial stamping effort, and I liked it so much I thought I'd share it.
You might remember yesterdays saran wrap mani, which was supposed to be a base for a dotticure - well the dotting tool didn't arrive, but Moyou London Pro Collection XL no.01 did arrive, and it's got dots on it so I thought I'd give it a try.
This is probably the first time I've tried stamping an image which ought to be placed straight on the nail - reckon I got it pretty straight on about 6 of them. It is also the first time I've used an image which has blocks of varnish (the dots) rather than lines, and I did struggle a bit on picking up a perfect image. Luckily I had just read a blog post about how hard you might need to scrape before picking up your image and I think I got better towards the end but there were a few waste images stamped on paper and the other hand has a few less perfect dots on it where it didn't fully pick up.
One thing I will say is that the dots are neatly aligned with each other and they probably wouldn't have been if I'd used the dotting tool.
Anyway, I stamped with A England Lancelot, a red black and I actually think it looks great over the light/dark pink holo saran wrap mess. I am ignoring the imperfections, and focussing on the pretty colours, the very fine red glitter that I noted in Girly Bits Too Hot for Pants peeping out from under the dark creme dots, as well as the holo shimmer.
And I love this plate, I can't wait to try the other images, and see how I go about lining the images up better on my nails.

A England Lancelot over saran wrap mani

 

 

 

 

 

Saran wrap mani with Girly Bits Too Hot for Pants and A England Her Rose Adagio

Today I have done another saran wrap mani, this time with A England Her Rose Adagio over Girly Bits Too Hot for Pants.
The intention was for this to be a base for a dotticure mani, following one of Debbie Crumpet's Simples tutorials, but my dotting tools have not arrived yet, so I may have to abandon that.
I am not sure this one worked as well as my first one; the holo in both these polishes is so strong that it seems the colours have blended too well, so I can't really see the marbling effect as well as I'd hoped. It is still pink and sparkly and pretty, but the definition is not there so I think it might just look a bit messy. It would have made a great base for dots though :(
I shall have to be brave next time and use creme polishes, maybe even contrasting colours :)

Saran wrap mani with Girly Bits Too Hot for Pants
and A England Her Rose Adagio