31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 22: Inspired by a Song

The song I chose as inspiration for this mani is the classic "Stormy Weather" with that enduring chorus "Stormy weather / Since my man and I ain't together / It's raining all the time".

Here it is, sung by the elegant and beautiful Lean Horne in 1943.

For my "weary weather" manicure, I used the holographic Color Club Worth the Risque as the base.  I stamped my rainy background using the diagonal stripes and dots on Konad M65 and Pure Ice Kiss Me Here.

The umbrellas are stamped with plate Konad M8 in Konad Special polish.  I filled in the umbrellas using nail pens.  I picked neon colors since the polish was a kind of gel that didn't obscure the umbrella outline.  I used the silver nail pen to add a few dots around the nails as bigger "raindrops".

Here's the mani in the sun.

I love the holo base!  It adds a little 3D feeling to the design!

Take care, Konaddicts!  Next on the list is "Inspired by a Movie" nails!

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 8: Metallic Nails

Metallic nails...hmmm...  What does that mean, exactly?  I use chromes and metallics a lot when stamping so I decided to go for a mani that reminded me of sheet metal.  I tried a bunch of different things until I finally found something close to what I had in mind.

The base is Love My Nails Silver Bullet, a silver chrome.  I used (another!) pattern from my XL Image Plate B which seemed to perfectly fit the bill.  I stamped over the silver with a Pure Ice Kiss Me Here, a gray chrome.  It's the exact combination I used before in my Silver and Gray mani, except in reverse order.

I pulled out my striping polish that I bought at Sally's a million years back to add the yellow stripe.  I used my cheapie Nail Star nail pens to add the dots on my "caution tape".  Theoretically, I could have used a combo of tape and stamping to get something that more resembled an actual caution tape, but the combination of drying time and trial and (lots of) error time made me go for the simpler approach.

I had so much fun trying to put this together!  It really got my creativity flowing and I finished with a mani I liked and bunches of polish strewn all over like there had been a nail polish tornado.

Overall, it was a fun stamping night!

Next up, "rainbow nails".

Silver on Gray with Chez Delaney

I finally bought a Chez Delaney XL plate!  I absolutely love all the full nail patterns.  The etching is deep and the patterns are really varied.  This was my cool look of silver on gray.  I had to move quickly to transfer the metallic polish from the stamper (but it was a true bargain at a little over $1 per bottle, so I'll gladly accept any extra hassle!).  

Base color: Pure Ice Kiss Me Here

Stamping color: Love My Nails Silver Bullet
Plate: Chez Delaney Plate B

If you haven't seen the Chez Delaney XL plates, you can see them/buy them at their website (in France!) here:  http://www.chez-delaney.com/Stamping-Nail-Art/en/XL-image-plates.  I didn't purchase mine from their website.  I waited until I found one on eBay for about $30.  Since there are 42 beautiful images on the plate, it turned out to be a great buy.  I can't wait to try out all the other patterns!