Nail Crazies Unite - Modern Art

I combined 3 prompts for this so I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself.
April is a busy month - it's year end at work, it's a mad mani month when hundreds of people seem to have birthdays and oh yeah! Me - I am going to be 50 - if I have time I need to fit in some celebrating!
Anyway, I started with a base of A England Puck A Fairy, just one coat was enough for good coverage but beware, I didn't have gels on and this did stain a little, so gel base or double base coat next time.
I then did my fanbrush mani with Attitude Masking Tape (most silly name ever) and Barry M Flamingo.
Then I made decals on my Uber Mat with those same three colours. I tried a technique I had seen Kyong Lee do recently, and not dissimilar to the way I sometimes do my fanbrush manis but just using the polish brushes. I cut the decals into thin strips and added them to the center of each nail so the streaks were at 90 degrees to the fanbrush strokes.
Finally I stamped a scribbly image from Lina Make Your Mark 02 with A England Proserpine.
My son is doing GCSE art but I don't think he was really impressed with my efforts..never mind, I really liked them.

Lina Make Your Mark 02 with A England Proserpine.

 

 

 

 

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Beach

Sorry the posting is so late...
This week's prompt (well, last week actually) was Beach (or animal silhouettes) but I wanted to use Dixie Plates Summer 01 so I went with beach!
I used my coral and gold mani from #whencolourscollide as my base. That was Dixie Plates Summer 01 and Avon Gold Leaf over Nails Inc Copacabana Coral.

Then I added Dixie Plates Summer 01 and A England Proserpine. They turned out quite well but really needed a matte top coat to capture the detail on camera.

Dixie Plates Summer 01

An InLinkz Link-up

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Christmas Preparations

This weeks prompt was Christmas Preparations - I hate wrapping and am no good at baking so for me the best Christmas preparation is decorating the tree.
We haven't done ours yet this year, but I always dream of a nice dark tree with silver/white decorations, so that's what I did on my nails.
I started with my fanbrush base of green, red and blue (Ard as Nails Missy, 'Ard as Nails Lazy Afternoon and Barry M Laguna) and then I used a lovely plate I got last Christmas Messy Mansion MM30.
I used A England Proserpine for the dark boughs of the tree and then used For Your Nails Only Snow Queen for the decorations.
I was really pleased with the outcome but it was so dull outside I did struggle to capture this one, despite taking over 100 photos.

fanbrush base

Messy Mansion MM30 with  A England Proserpine

Messy Mansion MM30 with  A England Proserpine
 and For Your Nails Only Snow Queen

An InLinkz Link-up

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Books

Not many of these to go now - where did a year go? and my poor blog has pretty much fizzled to nothing!
This latest challenge is almost a week late because last week was one of those weeks when so much went wrong to absorb all my free time that usually gets frittered away on nail stuff, and then when I thought of what I might do it involved striping tape which means an overnight drying of the base coat and time consuming placing of tape so that idea fell by the wayside (to be recycled when I have more time!)
The book I am reading is the Bourne Trilogy - good book but it failed to inspire me for the nail prompt. However Mr Knitty Nails is reading Game of Thrones - ah ha!! that's a bit more inspiring. I know my friend Iva had done some great dragon's egg nails so I thought I'd do that.
I used Pet'la Kaboom and For Your Nails Only Bullion over A England Proserpine. The stamping wasn't as crisp as I would have liked and I have no idea what I did wrong but some days you just just have to go with it and move on, so here are my dragon's egg nails.

Pet'la Kaboom and For Your Nails Only Bullion

 

 

 

March Challenges - 'Ard As Nails White Cliff Bay and Nautical Nails

'Ard As Nails White Cliff Bay - I adore this delicate sparkly tealy blue holo. It applied beautifully as they always do, with excellent coverage. If this had been just pale blue it would probably not have been me at all, but it's teal and I love it!

Nautical for #ggfnachallenge - I thought I'd stay with the teal shades for this nautical mani - I used DRK Seasons and Esmaltes da Kelly Dolly over Ard As Nails White Cliff Bay and then added Apipila Super Plate A and A England Proserpine. I was quite pleased with how this turned out although for some reason I really struggled to capture it on camera.

'Ard As Nails White Cliff Bay

 

Apipila Super Plate A and A England Proserpine 

 

February Challenges - Decade that I Love

The prompt for #clairestelle8feb was Decade you Love. There are so many different answers, when you grew up, met your first love, had children but I went for the style of art that I like most - ooh look another chance to do Art Deco!! I chose The 20s.
I started with a base of Hare Polish The Monster. This is a lovely polish but very sheer. I used 3 coats and even then I wasn't that happy with the coverage- I adore the colour but undies next time!
Then I added A England Proserpine and Moyou London Back to the '20s 05. I don't think I really captured quite how pretty this stage was but the Proserpine stamping worked so well with the greeny grey base.
Then I added 2True Pro Metrallica Aglaia and Emily de Molly EDM17, a lovely zigzag style pattern that looked very Art Deco to me
Then I added Avon Frosted Peach and Moyou London Holy Shapes 04  and then finally a matte top coat.
I think I kept the Art Deco look through all the stages and I was really pleased with the finished mani.

Hare Polish The Monster

A England Proserpine and Moyou London Back to the '20s

2True Pro Metrallica Aglaia and Emily de Molly EDM17

Avon Frosted Peach and Moyou London Holy Shapes 04

January Challenges - Winter Berries

I am still loving my new BundleMonster + Sloteazzy BM-XL210 plate and this time I have used it with Hit the Bottle Snowed Under over Leighton Denny Morning Dew.
Then I used it again with A England Proserpine.
The prompt was Winter Berries for #clairestelle8jan. I used Pet'la Plate Golden Russian and Esmaltes da Kelly Naomi over the watermarbled stamping mani. Naomi is a dark red although I think it looks a bit brown in these pics and it was really hard to get a good shot of these, so again I resorted to a matte top coat.

BundleMonster + Sloteazzy BM-XL210

BundleMonster + Sloteazzy BM-XL210

Pet'la Plate Golden Russian and
Esmaltes da Kelly Naomi

 

Pet'la Plate Golden Russian and
Esmaltes da Kelly Naomi - matte

 

 

December Challenges - Christmas Sweater

Still playing catch up on the blog and trying decide when to actually call it a day...
Anyway, earlier in the week...
As I mentioned in another post, I bought the November Paint the Rainbow box, and my second favourite after Bear Pawlish Scar is Colors by Llarowe Magnificent Malificent. This is a stunning teal holo with a very pretty pink shimmer to it.
As with all the CBLs I have tried the formula is wonderful, thick and creamy giving excellent coverage. I also noted once I had done two coats the finish was so satiny smooth and beautiful I just had to enjoy it it like that for a while and take a picture.
Then I top coated it - just gorgeous!!
I had decided to use this as the base for the Christmas Jumper prompt for #wnac2015.
I started with some stamping using the plate which will always be known to me as the @vernimage plate - when Gen used this plate, over a year ago now, I knew I had to have it. It was Messy Mansion MM40 (the knitting plate) and I stamped with MUA Whitewash for a delicate subtle stocking stitch pattern.
Finally I used Nailz Craze NC03 and A England Proserpine. This stamped beautifully but was really tricky to catch on camera.

Colors by Llarowe Magnificent Maleficent (no topcoat)

Colors by Llarowe Magnificent Maleficent

 

 

 

Messy Mansion MM40

Nailz Craze NC03

 

September Challenges - Plaid (or Tartan)

This weeks prompt for #wnac2015 was Plaid ( or Tartan if you are English).
I added stripes with A England Briar Rose and Lealac LLC-A to Glisten & Glow Electric Lemonade. Then I used A England Proserpine and Moyou London Hipster 05 to add the tartan pattern.
I am quite pleased with how these turned out - I love tartan and I think the colours work well together.

A England Briar Rose and Lealac LLC-A

A England Proserpine and Moyou London Hipster 05