Squirrels and Acorns

This is my first manicure for the newly formed facebook group: Stamp one, Stamp all Ten! And the theme for the group this week is "Fall"  You can see the manicures from the other lovely ladies in our group at the bottom of this post.

This challenge gave me a wonderful opportunity to use my new barry m aquarium polish.  I sponged some No 7 golden goodness onto my tips for some extra Autumn bling.  I made sure my right and left hands were slightly different since both squirrels and hedgehogs seem partial to the garden at the moment.
I really need to thank Lisa Hernandez from NailUpdate for her awesome tips on duochrome photography.  I still have a lot to learn, see Lisa's multichrome photo at the end of this post.

Base colour:  Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Paprika GNP 32
Duochrome:  Barry M Aquarium Collection, AQNP4 Mediterranean
Gold tips:  No 7 Stay Perfect, Limited edition, Gold Palms
Stamp colour: Konad black
Stamping plates: Moyou London Greek Mythology Collection 06 and Mother Nature Collection 03

Bottle shot

My left hand

Self Timer

Halogen lighting

The Stamping Plates

Tools of the Trade

Multchrome base

Gigantic thumb

Under the trees

Lisa Hernandez and multichrome

An InLinkz Link-up

Owl in a Tree

It is the tenth day of September is Stamping Month. Another fantastic theme.  It's "Trees"

I have a wonderful Moyou London, Mother Nature plate with three gorgeous trees to choose from.  I haven't used any so far, so I decided to start from the left :)

The tree on this plate was my inspiration. I wanted to differentiate between the leaves and branches, so  I picked a nice green and brown for gradient stamping (I'm not sure this is the correct term). The plate is quite busy, so I chose a neutral base gradient as a simple background.  I was also careful about what I stamped and where (I actually had to sketch it out and did a test mani on paper) even after all that thought, I still slipped up a few times! Hope you like it. Xxxxx

Halogen lighting <3

Sponged base gradient: 

• Primark nail polish, unnamed (nude)
• Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Lychee GNP 10
• Sinful Colors, 101 Snow me White

Stamping gradient: 

• Beauty UK nail polish, unnamed (green)
• Max Factor Max Effect Mini, 22 Coffee Brown
• Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Paprika GNP 32

Stamping plate: Moyou London Mother Nature Collection - 03

Sunshine through the window

Giant thumb!!!

Tools of the Trade

The base gradient

In the late afternoon sun

Indirect sunlight

More halogen lighting

Before stamping

Better Balloons

Welcome to September is Stamping Month: Day Six the theme is "Travel".  Tina ROCKS! This theme gave me a second chance at a previous failed mani.  I am 100% more impressed with the result this time than my earlier attempt!

The Sky: I sponged two blues onto my nails, there is a photo below.

Base colour: Primark nail polish, unnamed (sky blue and pale turquoise)

Stamp colour: Konad White

Stamping plate: Moyou London Mother Nature Collection - 06 (isolate the clouds only)

The Balloons:  Learning from previous mistakes, I picked bright colours!

Decal colours (From left as shown in decals photo):

• Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Papaya GNP 13
• Beauty UK Nail Polish, unnamed (yellow)
• Primark Nail Polish, unnamed (peach)
• Rimmel 60 Seconds, 405 Rose Libertine

Stamp colour: Konad Black

Stamping plate: Moyou London Mother Nature Collection - 06

Indirect sunlight

Balloons in the Garden

Tools of the Trade

The decals

Halogen Lighting

Huge Fingers!

Clouds

Mottled base colour

Halo Lighting

Hot Air Balloon Horror!

This could have been beautiful, the idea in my head certainly was!  I am posting this manicure because I will attempt to get it right next time.  I absolutely adore this plate, and love the idea of double stamping balloon decals over those stylized clouds.  I have tried to show off the fingers that worked best to illustrate what I mean.

The Sky
Base colour: Primark nail polish, unnamed (turquoise)
Stamp colour: Konad White
Stamping plate: Moyou London Mother Nature Collection - 06 (isolate the clouds only)


The Balloons
Decal colours (From left as shown in photo): Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Plum 348, Primark nail polish, unnamed (blue),Primark nail polish, unnamed (neon orange), Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Satsuma 317 and Rimmel 60 Seconds, 405 Rose Libertine
Stamp colour: Konad Black
Stamping plate: Moyou London Mother Nature Collection - 06


I also tried a small experiment on my pinky, where I chose two different balloons at the same size, and stamped black directly over orange to create coloured outlines.  This technique could work if you are consistent at precision stamping...which I am not!  But practise makes perfect, So I will no doubt try this technique again.

Here are the best of them!

Tools of the Trade

Lining up the decals

Swatching the base colour from primark

Indirect natural light

Learning Nail Decals Method 01

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Technique with thanks to pcontreras8nails. Click here for a great video tutorial and much more professional results. Her blog is amazing and I want you to take a peep right now. Click here.

I feel like a child when I look at my fingers.  But I know I will play with decals again.  I'm inspired to try out an emerald city manicure


Base colour: Clear
Stamp colour: Konad Black
Decals: Acrylic paints, White and Cadmium Yellow
Image plate: Moyou London Stamping Plate mother nature 06 and Fairytale Collection 12

The yellow brick road!

I can't help smiling at these

Tools of the Trade

Acrylic paint used to colour decals

Scary right hand closeup

Scary left hand closeup

Half tone mountains.

This was a swatch mani, and I haven't made it to the hot air balloons yet!  Well done again moyou london.


Base colour: Sinful Colors, 101 white
Stamp colour: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, GNP 11
Image plate: Moyou London Mother Nature Collection 06

Sorry, cuticles

Village Fingers

A really difficult plate for a beginner like me.

This manicure took an entire evening to execute and was still not even close perfect!  The problem was trying to get the houses to look vertical on the nail, and to keep the straight lines of the roof and wall from stretching, wobbling, disapearing,  smudging, you name it...it will happen!

Base colour:  Boots Natural Collection, White
Stamp colour: Primark, un-named blue
Image plate: Moyou London Mother Nature Collection 06

How cute

A firmer stamper is useful

I found these incredibly hard to stamp

I am backdating posts to date I took the photo. As a final note: please forgive poor photography, messy cuticles and bad stamping. This is a learning curve for me, and I will improve.