A2Z Series - U is for Unusual

Well it is Thursday again so it's time for this week's A2Z - today we have U for Unusual. I struggled for ages on what on earth to do but then I decided my best option was just to go for an unusual combination. So we have camouflage nails with lace... unusual enough?
I started with a base of Leighton Denny Attention, a lovely khaki green. Then I added a quick coat of Dollish Polish Urban Camo, a really pretty mix of green, yellow and black glitters in a clear base. (I ignored the white glitters, partly because I don't like them and also I was stamping with white later)
Then I stamped using Vivid Lacquer VL 010 and Leighton Denny Undercurrent, a deep dark olive green. VL 010 has a wonderful camouflage image on it and it was this plate that really inspired the whole mani. I love both these greens by LD and I think they go perfectly together to make a great camo look, especially with the added hint of glitter.
Finally I used Born Pretty plate BP-02 and Saffron London white to stamp the lace. I like ths Saffron polish for stamping. Because it isn't completely opaque, the camo pattern and glitter still show through.
Now they are finished, I am not convinced you'd look at these and think they are particularly unusual but I have to say, I think they are really pretty and I love them!

A2Z Series - U is for Unusual
Camouflage and lace

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Stamping! Born Pretty 02 with ATC Moon Dance

Today I have been stamping again. It didn't work out exactly as I'd planned but I am still quite happy with it. Although I've experimented before, I wanted to try stamping with 2 colours so I chose Above the Curve This One's for My Peeps and Caty Perry-winkle, a pink holo and a blue one, both quite pale colours and quite opaque so I thought they'd work well over Above the Curve Moon Dance that I was wearing from last night. I decided to try a very pretty lacy pattern on one of my Born Pretty Plates, BP02. These plates are really good value and despite the long wait for them to arrive I am really pleased I got them. 

The plan was to do half the image in pink and half in blue, and allow any merging of the colors to happen but although the polishes are opaque enough to stamp with, the colour has not really come through so the whole nail looks the same. Not the end of the world, the image stamped well and the design is pretty, so although I could see my plan had failed I kept going just in case the top coat helped the colours out. It didn't, but the stamps I did on paper worked so I think I was just a bit too optimistic stamping over such a dark colour. Note to self - things to try next - pale colours over white, not nearly black and stronger colours over a dark base.

The piece of paper where I wipe the scraper between scrapings looks really pretty with the pink and blue wipings :)

I could pretend that I'd just used one colour and that it all worked out perfectly but you never know - this might be a useful note to anyone else thinking about trying this. I still consider myself to be very new to stamping, still have heaps to learn and my blog is about what I did and why, so you get it all -successes and failures.

I don't consider this a failure, it is a lesson learned and luckily I still have a very pretty pattern stamped over last nights stunning glitter, the glitters still peeping out between the stamped image and I really like the end result!

As usual where I really like a mani, heaps of pictures. There was no sunshine today but I have a mix of daylight, LED and flash pics.

BP02 stapmed over Above the Curve Moon Dance