How Much Is That Doggy In the Window? On Sundays I Stamp!

Hello polished prisoners,

It's Sunday Sunday Sunday and we know what that means round these parts ;)  Adventures in Stamping time!  Hehe - can you tell how much I love these challenges? This week it's all about 2 for 1 i.e. using two different stamps in a manicure.  I do this all the time at least when I'm doing abstracts so I thought for today let me see what I can do without relying on double layering my stamps which I have done a lot before historically.  I wanted something feminine, slightly whimsical, and cute.  Here's what I came up with...

Cute, cute, cute!

Mani-louge

Base colors: Essie Sand Tropez and Barielle Welcome Ohm

Stamping polishes: Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl & White, Barielle Welcome Ohm

Stamping plates: M57 (lace), KD11 (dog), NCO1 (hearts), BM19 (dots), RuiZ02 (paws)

Accents: Kiss Nail Art Stickers (upper lace), Kala Animal Love Nail Art Stickers (bones), 2mm clear rhinestone

For some reason here Welcome Ohm is pulling purple, but it's a deeper berry pink than shown here.

There is so much to this manicure I don't even know where to begin.  Initially, I posted up to my Instagram with just the french tips and accents thinking this would be a relatively simple manicure.  All I knew is that I wanted to use a combination of nail art stickers and stamping and the rest just fell into place.

I love how the nude comes into this manicure in such a subtle way like the supporting role to everything else.

All of a sudden I had five or six stamping plates pulled out from all sorts of different collections.  This is the kind of manicure that's a nightmare to do a tutorial on hahaha!

Do you think the princess will capture her bones?

So what do you think - isn't this just so cute? I have to say Princess Fifi La Fleur (yes I named the dog) is looking good with her little bling accent ;)  Well never let it be said that I can't mix and match stamps with the best of them.  When I see this manicure it reminds me so much of my Giesha girl inspired mani I did many yore ago.  In any case I hope you enjoyed reading about this challenge as much as I did creating it.  Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post!  Toodles...

What's a Jewel To Do? On Sundays I Stamp!

Hiya lacquer ladies,

I hope your weekends are going well!  I've got a bit of news on my end as I've recently joined a nail art interest group called Adventures in Stamping - yay! I'm sure several of you have heard of it or are participants yourself.  We take a theme every week and then create nail art around it using stamping of one kind or another.  I love this concept so much and it's a great way to expand out on ideas, meet other lacquer ladies, and share helpful tips and cool techniques.  This means every Sunday I'll become a tramp, a stamp tramp that is (wink wink).  Lord save us from the Jezebels hahaha! Now onto the art...

The theme for this week is Precious Stones, i.e. designing around the concept of precious stones or using jewel tones.  This concept for me was oddly easy.  My birthday is right around the corner (August 1) and my birthstone, peridot, has been on my mind quite a bit lately as I've been thinking of buying a pair of solitaire earrings in the stone.  I will admit peridot is a tough color to pull off.  It just doesn't have that "classic" appeal I that I so love in stones such as pearls or sapphires (at least not IMO).  Nevertheless, I have endeavored to embrace myself and in so doing the stone of my birth lol.

Look at all this bling! Well it's my birthday stone so I'll bling as I want to...

I started by taping off my nails at a diagonal and painting with Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in Ivy League for the majority of my nails.  The accents are painted with Zoya's Jules and Butter London's Tart With A Heart.  What I love about TWAH is that it has so many small flecks of iridescent glitter including those that throw back a peridot colored green which made it perfect for the theme.

I love the effect of TWAH layered under Ivy League! Green and gold is one of my favorite combinations.

Next I stamped on lace, leopard, zebra, and grid accents using Konad Special Polish in black from plates SH21, M57, CH11 respectively.

CH11, SH21, and M57 plates

 I added several pearls, microbeads, and yellow, clear, and green colored rhinestones to each stamping, and I also used my LA Colors nail art stripper in gold glitter to add little accents throughout each nail.

Lol I promise not all of my mani's are blinging, but I mean come on Shelly it's precious stones themed.  How could I NOT bling it up?!?

So what do you think? I wonder if I hadn't said that my stone was peridot you would have known anyway? Do tell because I really would like to know.  In any event this was so fun I can't wait to see what next week's theme is!  Thanks for reading and see you next post! Toodles!