Woolly Winter Warmer

Hello lovely viewers!

Since the weather has cooled off, I've recently dug the cosiest winter warmers out of the back of my wardrobe.  And I wanted to pay tribute to my favourite comfy jumper.  I felt that the decorative stripes on this hehe plate look just like the fair isle patterns on my woolly green friend (you can meet the jumper at the end of this post).

Bottle shot

E = Elegant

Hello!  Quick post for you today:  here is a simple playful manicure using a rich metal bronze stamped over a dreamy creamy white base,  I ❤ the flowing swirls and hearts on this Pueen plate.

The stamper picks every detail up

Crunchy Autumn Leaves

This is another manicure where I am attempting to fulfill several different challenges all at once!   The themes all cried out for me to do an autumn manicure with rich autumn colours, using leaves as decals.

My awesome Mexican friend, Mariana and I worked together again.  See more of Mariana's beautiful nail stamping manicures here:   http://instagram.com/stampingqueenblog or on her Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/stampingqueenblog

Our manicures together <3

Crumpets 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge.
This week, we have been given the prompts: "Books" and "Brown".  I don't have any books to stamp with so I used the most gorgeous, glossy, chocolate brown ever: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Cocoa.

This is also a challenge manicure for our facebook group: Stamp one, Stamp all Ten!   And the theme for the group this week is "Seasons"  I chose Autumn since this is my favourite season.

A-Z Weekly Blog
I am so happy to be part of the group of nail bloggers A-Z challenge. I will try to post alphabetically every thursday.  Yesterday's letter is D for "Dark", so I used deep autumn colours for the leaves and background. Hashtag #A2ZNails

Halogen Lighting

The lovely Mariana

Close-up

Bottle Shot!!!

Tools of the Trade

Base and decal colour: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Cocoa GNP 34

Accent fingers:  Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Plum GNP 1

Glitter tips:  Barry M Aquarium Collection, AQNP4

Stamp colour: Rimmel 60 Seconds, 405 Rose Libertine

Stamping plate:  Cici & Sisi Set 01 - Plate 03

Colour shift!

Shimmery tips

Another Bottle Shot!!

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunset Smoosh

This post is a collaboration with my gorgeous friend Sumeet.  If you love nail stamping, you need to take a look at Sumeet's blog: http://talesofcoffeelacquerandbeauty.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/tales-of-coffee-lacquer-and-beauty-and.html  She posts the most gorgeous, inspiring manicures you could imagine.  Sumeet has such a wonderful way of explaining how to use techniques to get the effects you want.  Furthermore she also provides some of the best stamping product reviews I have seen in combination with her love of indie polish reviews.

Close-up

Take a look at these popping colours by Sumeet:

Our manicures together ❤

Now, I would like to explain my post title.

Sunset:  When I first sent a message to the lovely Sumeet, my mobile phone was convinced that I needed to change her name from Sumeet to Sunset!  And even though I knew I hadn't misspelled it, Sumeet will always be a gorgeous sunset to me.

Smoosh:  This is a technique I'd never heard of before.  It involves stamping multiple colours onto the nail in one go.

Sumeet directed me to @With2L (http://instagram.com/p/sZlXl2KmiM).  Elle applies different coloured polish onto one stamper and smoooooshes it onto a second stamper before placing it onto the nail.  And then Mariana (http://instagram.com/stampingqueenblog) showed me a similar technique by @Nailstamp4fun  (http://youtu.be/aQE9lIdYG4o) Swanette applies dots of different nail polish onto a non-porous surface.  She then uses a stamper to pick this smooosh up and transfer it to the nail.

I used Swanette's method, but adapted it slightly by waiting for the "smoosh" to dry on the stampers before applying it as a decal to my nails.

Bottle shot

Halogen Lighting

Gigantic Fingers.

How I smooooooshed!

Base colours:  (Sumeet was much braver than me)

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Blood Orange GNP 4

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Paprika GNP 32

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Satsuma GNP 7

Stamp colour: Konad Stamping Polish, White
Stamping plate: DRK xl Designer - 01

Smoooooosh Atttttack!!!!!!

Cobbles and Waves

Purple for Small Soldiers

Today the 17th of November and I am wearing this purple manicure for every tiny hero born prematurely.

#DiaMundialDelPrematuro
#ConAmorVencerás
#WorldPrematurityDay
#ManiMorado
#PurpleMani

Base colour: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Coconut GNP 28
Stamp colours: Mundo de Uñas Stamping Polish, 14. Violet, 20. Fiusha and 42. Holland Blue
Stamping plate: Moyou London Pro Collection - 06XL

Raising Awareness

Bottle Shot

Halogen lighting

Close-up

Bottle shot!!!

Gigantic thumb

Tools of the trade

Please Wear Purple Today

So, what is world prematurity day?

Source:   http://www.mummypinkwellies.com/2014/11/world-prematurity-day-17th-november-2014/

This year 15 million babies will be born prematurely around the world, 60,000 right here in the UK. More newborns die from premature birth than from any other cause. Yet, 75 percent of these deaths can be prevented, even without intensive care.

On 17 November, World Prematurity Day, Bliss will join with other organisations around the globe to raise awareness.

We know that having a premature baby can turn your world upside down. Join us on World Prematurity Day and help us turn the world the right way up for the thousands of families all around around the UK who are facing an extremely traumatic time when their baby comes early.

• You can show your support by sending Bliss a picture of your little one. They’ll be combining all of the images to make a photo collage which they’ll send back to you on 17th November for you to share with friends and family and over social media. Just email your images to mediateam@bliss.org.uk

• The international colour for WPD is purple, as always, you could light a purple candle or wear purple on the day and share a photo across social media.

• Hold a little lights walk in your area to raise awareness and vital funds for Bliss.

• Tweet the following message on 17 November – I am supporting #wpd to help the 15 million babies born too soon each year with @Blisscharity #giveahug

• Update your facebook status on 17 November – I am supporting Bliss this World Prematurity Day to to make sure all the tiny babies get the support they need. Help us raise awareness of the serious issues faced by them and their families by sharing and liking.https://www.facebook.com/WorldPrematurityDay

*For more information please visit Bliss.

C = Copycat

A-Z Weekly Blog
Oooops,  I am running a day late!!!!  This is my third post for the A-Z challenge. We will post alphabetically every thursday, So today is the letter C. The theme for C is "Copycat". Hashtag #A2ZNails


My amazing Mexican friend, Mariana and I copied each other to create these matching manicures.  See more of Mariana's beautiful nail stamping manicures here:   http://instagram.com/stampingqueenblog or on her Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/stampingqueenblog

Base colour: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Coconut GNP 28 and Lychee GNP 10 (mixed)
Stamp colour: George (Asda) Molten Metals, No. 5 Party Animal
Stamp accent: Barbara Daly Nail Polish mini, boulevard
Stamping plate: Cici & Sisi Set 01 (white cover) Plate 03

Copycat!!!!

Autumn Love

The amazing Mariana ❤

Closeup

Hearts and Petals

Tools of the Trade

Halogen Lighting

Bottle Shot

Check out the other participants manicures too

An InLinkz Link-up

Fireworks and Flowers

I've been very slow in getting this post together considering how excited I've been about sharing it with you all.

When my sister Amity came to visit last week, she also brought along the nail polish she had used for my birthday nail party.  I used it to create a matching fireworks manicure on my own nails.  Amity was inspired to use this colourful glitter to create firework nails by Naomi, author of the blog, Bewitchery.  Click here to see Naomi's firework nails

Amity got me the beautiful Pueen Encore set of stamping plates for my birthday present and I couldn't wait to try them out.  Together we chose a beautiful floral section of plate plate 4a with butterflies and elegant tendrils surrounded by a lovely collection of different flowers..

Base colour:  Essie, Boat House
Base colour:  Technic, Carnival Glitter
Stamp colour: Mundo de Uñas Stamping Polish, 12. Cream
Stamping plate: Pueen Encore SE04A

Our Fireworks Glitter Base

Fireworks and Flowers

Close-up

It was so nice to have you here <3

Tools of the Trade

Giant Finger!!!!

Double Trouble!

Halogen Lighting

The Bird is the Word

Firstly, I am going to thank Priscilla for here amazing post http://pcontreras8nails.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/the-bird-is-word.html. I loved her manicure so much I am paying tribute, with my own interpretation using bird decals over pretty glitter and the same title.

This week I've been feeling under the weather, and by Saturday, I realised I had not fulfilled any of the challenges set by some of my favourite facebook groups.  When I looked more closely at the prompts, I realised I could just about combine them all in one manicure!

• Stamp One Stamp all Ten!  Over Glitter
• AIS Sunday Challenge:  Wildlife
• Crumpets 52 Week Pick n Mix: Domestic animals and 3 shades of blue

Lovebirds were the obvious choice for me.  We had a pair when I was small, but they escaped and flew away and became wildlife,  (even though all of our neighbours climbed their ladders to the roof of their houses equipped with nets and food, trying to tempt them back, but sadly the birds just wanted to be free).

My Dad gave me this Cici & Sisi plate set for my birthday and the images are fantastic, but I have just cut my nails, so I was able to split the images and use one stamping image for two nails.

To keep with the "three shades of blue" and "over glitter" themes, I coloured stamping decals in blues over a glittery blue base.  Thank you San for this amazing iridescent glitter top coat, I love it.

Base colour: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Sugar Apple GNP 21
Base glitter:  Generic iridescent loose glitter found in a set from ebay
Glitter nail polish:  Catrice Cosmetics Million Styles, 03 Have an Ice Day

Stamp colour: Konad Special Stamping Polish, Black
Stamping plate: Cici & Sisi Set 01 (white cover) Plate 02

The colours used for the decals:

• Essie Nail Lacquer, Where's my Chauffeur
• Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Blueberry GNP 5
• Konad Special Stamping Polish, White

Big Bottle shot!

Close-up

Humongous finger!!!!!

The amazing Priscilla

Bottle Shot

Gigantic finger

The decals

Tools of the Trade

Halogen Lighting

Tweet tweet tweet

Crumpets 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge

Stamp One Stamp all Ten: Over Glitter

An InLinkz Link-up