My First Leadlight

Hello, Fireflies!

Ready for another post of 'Nidia Tries Something New and It Goes Sideways As Expected'?  Good! Here we go... my first lead-light technique!

Sunday Stamping - Over a Purple Holo Gradient

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's challenge was to stamp over a holographic polish.  When I saw that, I was sooo happy.  Not only because I love holos, but because I already had done this mani, and was looking to embellish it:

This is a simple dabbing gradient (no sponges, just dabbing the polish brush in layers over a previous polish.)  I started with a reddish holo from Daring Digits.  It has no sticker, I don't know what it's called.  It's very light - almost translucent.  Over that, Lilypad Lacquer Blooming Violets, a pink-leaning violet.  The third is by now mostly defunct Liquid Lacquer, and it's called Houses of The Holy.  It's a purple jelly, and very light, almost too light to see, really.  I didn't know..  The last is gorgeous royal purple I Love Nail Polish Amanda Hugginkiss.

My husband thought it looked so sophisticated.  He's so sweet.  He really loves purple, and has taken a shine to any purple manis I do. 

To stamp, I chose this floral pattern from Dashika Big SdP-L plate and Wet 'n Wild Black Creme. (The other hand I stamped with Cult Nails Nevermore, which did a better job.)

I love stamping over a gradient.  For one, it makes the gradient look fantastic, no matter how sloppy of a job you did. 

Also, like the best company dinners, it looks complicated, but it's not.

I was even able to do *both* hands!

Bottle shot:  Daring Digits [unknown], Lilypad Lacquer Blooming Violets, Liquid Lacquer Houses of The Holy, and I Love Nail Polish Amanda Hugginkiss. (Not pictured: Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, and Cult Nails Nevermore.)

I love happy coincidences where I can make a nail art work for a challenge.  You might see some other incidences of that this month, where I found a nail art from the vault that worked for a challenge.  I like working smarter, not harder!

What do you think about turning this gradient into something that fulfilled the stamping challenge?  Would you have rather started a new look from scratch?

My first Skittlette!

Hello, Fireflies!

This month, the NCC challenge theme is the Skittle.  According to ChitChatNails, there are several formulas for a skittlette, of which I chose the most common - Creme, Creme, Stamp, Stamp, Glitter. I figured, since it was my first one, I should take it slow and steady.

I used Ulta Whatever Floats Your Moat, a blue jelly; OPI I Have A Herring Problem, a grey-blue with silver shimmer; and Liquid Lacquer A Calm Does Not Suit Me, a milky white base with blue and purple glitters.

I used Revlon Spirit and Dashika Big SdP-L to make this pattern over the OPI.

And, for the pièce de résistance, I chose some grey-blue rhinestones and placed them in my Nail Veil, which I then attached to my thumb with some topcoat.

I love that I can color-coordinate my Nail Veil! 

Bottle shot:  Ulta Whatever Floats Your Moat, OPI I Have A Herring Problem, Liquid Lacquer A Calm Does Not Suit Me, and Revlon Spirit.

I'm not sure how I feel about skittlettes - or even skittles - but I love nail jewelry.  What say y'all?

An InLinkz Link-up

Elephant Walk

Hello, Fireflies!

As much as I struggled wth last month's challenge, I am *loving* this month's.  Probably only because I don't know how to do 'real' art, but I know how to follow a tutorial - it's almost all I do!  It's been so much fun picking tutorials to do that I might not get around to.

Like the monkeys from the last challenge, I chose another tutorial inspired by Adventures In Acetone.  This time, elephants!

I started with Butter London Keks.  I'm in love with this polish - so bright and cheerful, and that 'rubber' finish is so cool.

The hardest part for me is figuring out how to make the right shape for everything else to be painted on.  I try to think about it in smaller shapes added together, which is why the tutorial from Adventures In Acetone was so helpful.  It's not a specialized blob; it's a circle, an oblong, and a hook added together.

After creating the shape of the elephants' heads with L'Oreal Greycian Goddess, I added the inner part of the ear with Butter London Primrose Hill Picnic.

The eyes and tusk I made with Milani White On The Spot.  Zombie elephants! Run!

A bit of Liquid Lacquer Spaced Out for the water spray, and black for the details and outlines, and the elephants come to life.

Topcoat seals in the design, and makes everything look level.  March on, elephants!

The cuteness!

Bottle shot:  Butter London Keks & Primrose Hill Picnic, L'Oreal Greycian Goddess, Milani White On The Spot, Liquid Lacquer Spaced Out, and a black nail art striper.

Which do you like better, the monkeys or the elephants?  I love them both!

Sunday Stamping - Are you Jelly?

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's challenge was a jelly-stamping-sandwich.  Not a PB&J sandwich, although those are quite nummy.  This invention is made by stamping a design in-between layers of a jelly (translucent) polish.

Weird, I know, right?  See if you like it.

I started out with Liquid Lacquer Spaced Out.  It dries matte, which I didn't know before I started.  It was fine for the bottom two layers of the mani, but it was kinda hard to finish the top layer before it dried.  So, word to the wise, unless you're super comfortable working with mattes, I wouldn't recommend them for a stamping sammich.

I hate to go there, but I have to be honest.  This was not Liquid Lacquer's finest moment.  I love her polishes, and have for a while.. but this one has chunks of pigment in it, which you can plainly see in the pix.  Not a good look.

"Spaced Out" made me look to this stamp from DRK-A.  I thought it looked like a swirling black hole, or other space-y thing. 

I used Milani White on the Spot for the stamp.  I thought that would be a good color to start with because I knew the final layer of polish would change everything.

Those of you who remember 45 records will understand that after I stamped this, it no longer looked like a black hole.  It looked like the spacer we used on 45s to be able to play them on a regular record player!

If you don't know what that is, then I have just become REALLY old to you. 

One last layer of Spaced Out, and a piece of glitter in the center of the 'black hole'.  I definitely need some practice with this technique, but it has some interesting possibilities!

Bottle shot:  Liquid Lacquer Spaced Out, and Milani White On The Spot.

So, does this mani inspire you to try this technique, or does it make you want to go dig out all your old 45s from the back of your closet?

Sunday Stamping - Really elusive unicorn

I am kinda embarrassed about today's post, Fireflies.

At least it starts off well - this beauty is Liquid Lacquer All Lilaced Out.

It's a beautiful delicate lilac with a subtle linear holo and a purple shimmer.

I used the alternating rainbows stamps and the starburst stamps on Winstonia W111, and the unicorn on W117.  But, here's the embarrasing part.

Apparently, the unicorn is even more elusive than I thought, because I forgot, apparently, to take pix of anything other than my thumb.

*hangs head in shame*

I was really inspired by this guy:

So, hopefully he'll make you feel better about missing the actual mani.  And, if I can't laugh at myself for that dumb mistake, I can laugh at that guy.

Here's the bottle shot:  Liquid Lacquer All Lilaced Out, Maybelline Amethyst Ablaze, and Essie Nothing Else Metals.

Better luck next week, I hope!! 

Oh, no! What did I do to that holo?!

Hello, Fireflies!

It's a good thing I'm not a perfectionist, or I'd never post anything.  Today, I have a couple of manis that were aspiring to perfection, but overshot and went up in flames.

Ironically, the first polish is from a brand called, "Perfect".  This is the perfectly named, "H3".  It looks like an H3, doesn't it?

This is one of those holos that would have performed better with an aqua base coat.  Took me three coats to even out the patches, and the formula was finicky.  But, the end result is awesome.  Very bright, clear linear holo.  Almost blinding.

And. then, I wasted all that hard work.  Pffft.

I thought, 'ooh, dark green would look great with pink.'  Not thinking that dark green would stamp as  muddy black.  It just looks like my printer ran out of ink.

Look at this gorgeous cornflower blue holo, Liquid Lacquer When the Levee Breaks. 

It's so delicate.  I love how the rainbow reflects yellow and purple and pink.

And then, the Levee broke and made a dam(n) mess.

One of my recent fave blues (and a great pedi color) is OPI I Saw..U Saw.. We Saw.. Warsaw.  Beautiful blue.  Does not stamp, at least for me. Looks like a weird Rorschach test.

If it weren't so tragic for these gorgeous holos, it would be funny.  Oh, heck, it is funny.  Celebrate your screwy manis, we all have them, and if we're lucky, we learn something from them.  If you have a screwy mani you'd like to share, post it on my Facebook wall! I'd love to see them.

Challenge - Flowers II: The Red Stamp

Yep, back with another flower challenge!  I've never done so many challenges before, and I gotta tell ya, it's a little...uh, well.. challenging.

*rimshot*

Liquid Lacquer Twinkle Toes.  Let's pick up the pace with this little dance-y number.  What a gorgeous blue, with red..red? glitter.  It's a different combination. 

I love that the glitters are so small.  Such a different look from really chunky glitter bombs.  This one is almost delicate, except that the colors are jarring. 

Playing off the red, I decided to do a red tip and stamp with Sally Hansen Sacred Scarlet and Pueen 19.

I picked up Sacred Scarlet in a two-pack at TJMaxx and it's become one of my go-to bright reds.  I was delighted to see that it even stamps pretty well. 

This was really a stretch for me.  Even the hubby look confused at this combo.  We both decided that we liked it, but we weren't sure why!
 

If you'd like more information about Liquid Lacquer, you can find her on Facebook and she also has a Big Cartel store. 

What do you think of this combo of colors?