5 years of blogging!

Seems a bit cheeky to celebrate since I barely blog any more but I couldn't quite let the date go by without a comment.
On 30th December 2012 I published my first blog post, and back then I blogged every single mani I did!
Over the years two things happened... I got busier with "other stuff" and I got into stamping and did more manis. The result was that I couldn't blog everything, there just wasn't the time to devote to it and the readership is not huge so I reluctantly decided to cut back and only blog the challenges that came with Inlinkz as I felt obliged to blog them. And knitting wise, I haven't had much free time to knit so not many new project to blog either, sadly!
Anyway, the blog is still here and who knows what the future may bring...

In the meantime, Happy 5th Birthday to my blog (image from Google)

Nail Crazies Unite - Blue, Silver and White Winter

Well, this week's prompt was Blue, Silver and White Winter and you can't get more wintery than snowflakes. I love snowflakes and I have plenty of plates with snowflakes on so any excuse to use them and I'm happy!
I started with a silver gel base. Gellifique 6056 is a one step gel of very fine silver glitter in a clear base. I used 2 coats. It was not fully opaque but enough for a base under stamping and as my nails are no longer stained I didn't mind that coverage was not 100%.
I started with a large snowflake image from Pet'la Plate Flake No More with Moonflower Polish Azul (Blue). I like the Moonflower polishes, I have 3 so far and they stamp nicely but I don't find the coverage great on negative images, or large areas of stamping. I think I need to work to find a better technique for spreading the polish but that aside the blue stamped well for this snowflake image.
I then added a much more delicate snowflake from Beauty Big Bang 06 and Moyou London White Knight.
Finally I added some trees with Messy Mansion MM30 and A England Natasha's Dance.
I was pleased with the wintery look of this mani!

An InLinkz Link-up

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Christmas Childhood Memories

This week's prompt was Christmas Childhood Memories.
I couldn't really think of much but when I was young we used to go out walking a lot. Just as my memories are full of warm sunny summers, they are also filled with snowy winters (I don't know how factual these memories are but I am sure we had more sun and snow!)
Anyway, I am pretty sure we had a lots of walks through woods and fields in the snow, so here is a snowy forest scene!
I started with a fanbrush base of Kiko 336, Kiko 389 and Colors by Llarowe Aubergine Dreams.
Then I stamped some of the snowflakes and trees from Messy Mansion MM27XL with A England Carnation Lily Lily Rose. Then I added more trees with Avon Iceberg White.
I am not completely happy with these. Having cut my nails down ready for a family Christmas with small people it takes me a while to get used to the new length. Also due to lots of other stuff going on pictures were taken in poor light and I also tried a different setting on my phone which gave truer lighting and colour but also picked up any movement so if you spot any ghosts you know why!

Messy Mansion MM27XL

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Crazies Unite - December Holiday

This week's prompt was December Holiday. I am not really in the holiday mood yet but I thought some Christmas Trees might be a good start 🎄🎄🎄
I used Messy Mansion MM79XL with A England Nocturne over A England Katherine of Aragon.

I like this image although I imagine it would look even better on longer nails.

I was really impressed with how nicely Nocturne stamped and although not a fan of gold polish, I love Katherine of Aragon, being more of a nude / white gold.

Well, it was too cold outside to take many pictures so here are a few and now I'd better try and find some Christmas spirit!

Messy Mansion MM79XL

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Insects and/or bugs

This week's prompt was insects or bugs and I had the perfect plate! The Ejiubas and Sarah R collab plate has a strip of little buggy things down the middle.
I started with the week's fanbrush mani as a base, I thought the green, black and yellow made a great background and I stamped the little bugs in a nice crisp white.

Ejiubas and Sarah R

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Crazies Unite - Disney / Pixar Inspired

Another of those manis where I wonder whether I should really join in! I don't really like "things" on my nails so almost all of my plates have patterns, flowers, snowflakes, swirls - I don't have characters, creatures, people so I had to trawl though all my plates seeking a fish that I could stripe like Nemo! - I obviously wasn't going to find a car or a monster or a cowboy!
Finally I found one on Bundlemonster BM-S166.
I stamped this in black over a white base and coloured the stripes with an orange Sharpie.
4 fishy nails would have been too much I think so on the other nails I started with an orange base of Kiko 280, stamped white stripes and then lined them in black Sharpie. I deliberately did the freehand bit wobbly because I knew I wouldn't get it straight but I think it turned out quite well.
Lots of pics, all virtually the same!!!

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up