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| September: Birthstone - Sapphire / Birth Flower - Aster |
Even as I write this, I'm still channeling Sam's encouraged mantra: "Done is Better than Perfect!!" (from her post on The Nailasaurus).
This has been a really fun design to wear, I've enjoyed both the simplicity and the little bits of things I did for depth of color.
To make the blue sapphire nails, I used two polishes, layering a couple coats of a blue jelly polish over one coat of a shimmering blue metallic polish. This gave these nails just the fiery blue color and the glassy surface feel of sapphires.
The aster nails were done with a little bit of freehand (stems & leaves) with stamping decals on top (flowers). I started with an amazing off-white cream called Birthday Suit (how appropriate to use it for a Birthday design - yes?!!) handmade by Shaneka, the genius creator of Polish My Life polishes. Having very fair skin it's so nice to use a creamy color like this as opposed to a stark white polish. I also used another of her polishes, Money Tree, to brush on the stems and leaves (abstractly). If you're looking for polishes with amazing formulas and great color selections, I hope you check out her site!
Now for the flowers...I didn't have a full nail stamp design that I felt looked like any asters I'd seen before, so I used a single stamp image multiple times on the decal. Trying for some variety, I layered a jelly polish and then a creme when coloring in the petals of the flowers. It's not a visible effect, other than it gave me the color I was looking for to accent the cranberry red stamping (outline of the flowers). A small bit of yellow in the center helps make these cheery just like their inspiration.
I had only attempted stamping decals once before...and I can't say that I've mastered the technique yet. Thankfully, my polish pal and blogger, Karolyn, was by my side from 2,200 miles away texting me tips and answering questions the day I made the decals. Thank you, dear friend!! Two of the tips she gave me that were most helpful were: 1) using a regular top-coat (not a quick-dry) and 2) and to apply the decal to a dry nail (using the same topcoat on top to adhere it in place).
For this design, I could have simply stamped each nail three or four times and then colored in the center and petals on top. However, the decals gave me a little better control over the placement of the overall design on each nail. I'm looking forward to making more decals soon! It's a great way for me to break-up the time of doing a design into smaller chunks of time. I made these decals 2 days before I applied them which made completing the design pretty quick.
Design Details:
- Milani ~ Bolting Blue
- Orly ~ Royal Navy
- Polish My Life ~ Birthday Suit
- China Glaze ~ Red-y & Willing
- Zoya ~ Paloma
- Zoya ~ Penelope
- Polish My Life ~ Money Tree
- O.P.I. ~ I Just Can't Copeacabana
- MASH stamp plate 60Miscellaneous: dotting tool, tiny art store paint brush - See more at: http://www.kimettkolor.com/2014/08/theme-of-month-august-peridot-and.html#sthash.g4B87CHK.dpufMiscellaneous: dotting tool, craft store brush 18/0Miscellaneous: dotting tool, tiny art store paint brush - See more at: http://www.kimettkolor.com/2014/08/theme-of-month-august-peridot-and.html#sthash.g4B87CHK.dpufMiscellaneous: dotting tool, tiny art store paint brush - See more at: http://www.kimettkolor.com/2014/08/theme-of-month-august-peridot-and.html#sthash.g4B87CHK.dpuf
Inspiration Sources:
Photo Sources:
So - what do think? Did you enjoy your ride back through time? Any September babies reading this? If so, please know I wish(ed) you lots of great celebrations and hugs!!
Till next time,
Kimett