When Colours Collide - Yellow and Grey

I can't say this was my favourite #whencolourscollide challenge - yellow and grey... well I love grey but I really don't like yellow.
Anyway, I gave it my best shot, trying to keep it fairly simple so I did a gradient of Leighton Denny
Brick Road and Leighton Denny Graycious and then stamped with Esmaltes da Kelly Topolino and Messy Mansion MM20

Messy Mansion MM20 - Yellow and Grey

 

 

 

December Challenges - #manidaretoinspire

One of my IG friends, lovely Iva @secretjewelgarden tagged me for #manidaretoinspire
We had to chose a partner, send each other a picture and then create a mani inspired by the picture.
I paired up with talented @leonies_nailart and this is what we did.
I sent Leonie a photo of a sunrise that I had taken recently and Leonie sent me this amazing shot of a little shoot bursting through a crack in some tarmac.
Leonie did a fantastic watercolour style mani of my sunrise, it was so beautiful and not at all what I was expecting, which is perfect - these collaboration are wonderful for changing the way you think.
I struggled to think how I could represent the picture Leonie sent and in the end I just went with the colours.
I used a base of Kiko Sugar Mat 646, then I stamped some cracks with Yours Cosmetics Sacha Gossen YS12 and Esmaltes da Kelly Topolino
Then I added the swirly shrubs with Pueen SE04A and Esmaltes da Kelly Bruce and finally flowers from Messy Mansion MM20 and Esmaltes da Kelly Dolly.
I top coated after adding the grey cracks but left the final mani un-topcoated so it still had quite a rough feel, and matte finish.
Although I was nervous about this mani, in the end I was pretty proud of what I'd done and I think the final collage with Leonie's mani looks great.

Kiko Sugar Mat 646

Messy Mansion MM20

 

September Challenges - Blue and Flowers

I am way behind on my posts again, but here is another combined challenge - Blue for #30daysofcolorchallenge and Flowers for #clairestelle8sept
The blue I chose was A England Proserpine which I actually think this is quite tealy but it is a teal blue, I wanted to wear it and I didn't really have many untried blues.
This is a gorgeous colour - I always thought A England Saint George  was my favourite A England but this is a close competitor. Proserpine is bluer than Saint George but just as dark and gorgeous.
As with all A Englands application was a dream, with perfect coverage. I have used 2 coats but having already stamped with this a few times, I think you might get away with one. This polish does stamp beautifully!
This time however I stamped over it with SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops and Messy Mansion MM20. I love this stamping plate, and I think the combination of the gold stamping and the blue flowers is just stunning. I took a lot of photos!!!
It was my mum and dad's 50th wedding anniversary and I chose these 2 colours partly to match my outfit, so obviously I had to take a few matchy shots too!
Finally, the next day I wanted to test one of my new Vivid Lacquer plates, VL037, so a quick shot of some more flowers with Hit the Bottle Snowed Under.

A England Prosperpine

SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops
 and Messy Mansion MM20

Vivid Lacquer VL037 and Hit the Bottle Snowed Under

An InLinkz Link-up

Stamping and Saran wrap! Messy Mansion 20 and some pretty pastel flowers

Earlier in the week I was wearing Above the Curve Cold Rain, but I was bursting to try Messy Mansion 20, which has a sort of reverse image on it, where you are effectively stamping a background, and leaving the flowers as the base colour. I also had an idea I wanted to try out for a more colourful base which I thought would look good under black stamping.
I have done a few saran wrap manis and love the finished marbley look you get with very little effort, so I wanted to try a sort of saran wrap gradient thing! I chose 2 colours that went well with Cold Rain. Staying with the same brand of polish I chose This One's for My Peeps, a pinky lilac shimmery holo and Caty Perry-winkle which is a lilacy blue shimmery holo. Both these polishes have great opacity so I was pretty certain they'd work for a saran wrap mani.
I used the pinky one to do the lower half of my nails and the blue one for the tips and allowed the colours just to meet in the middle. I think the combination of colours look lovely together and had I not been so keen to stamp, I would probably have worn the mani just like that for a day.
I took a couple of pics and then started stamping. I used A England Camelot to stamp with and I did have a bit of a problem picking up the whole image so the stamping is not perfect. I do seem to struggle a bit with images where you have to pick up a lot of polish and I am thinking I should try this plate with one of my Mentality polishes and see if it is a bit more successful.
To the naked eye they look fine and I am really pleased with the finished look but blown up on the laptop you can see all the bits that aren't black when they should be.
I really like the black stamping with the pastel coloured flowers showing through - imperfections apart, they turned out exactly as I'd hoped and I absolutely love them!!

Saran wrap with Above the Curve Cold Rain,
This One's for My Peeps and Caty Perry-winkle

stamping with Messy Mansion 20