It always seems the more excited I am to share a post with you, the longer it takes me to pull it all together. Well, today's post took me what seemed like forever!!
If you were anywhere in the vicinity of, oh I don't know, North America...you would have heard a hearty "Whoopee!" echoing across your path when I hit the publish button on this one. There's lots of details, macros, a slideshow, and even a stuffed clown fish thrown in for good measure.
It may have seemed like this nail art was a sure thing when I wrote my previous post about this gorgeous blue polish which now happens to be creating a perfect ocean backdrop. But in actuality, I had no clue whether I would be up for doing nail art, nor what the design might look like if I were.
The only thing for certain was, that if I did art it was definitely going to be with a new stamping plate that I recently received. This plate is special to me because it's the first layering type plate I've tried, but more so because it was designed in collaboration with a nail friend of mine, Iva, known as @secrectjewelgarden on Instagram. Iva is a huge inspiration to me and I've learned a lot from her too. I was thrilled when she partnered with Clear Jelly Stamper to create this fabulous plate.
Let's take a brief moment to drool over that gorgeous blue abyss, otherwise described as: three coats of Madam Glam's cat eye gel called Look Me In The Eye.
After playing around a bit, getting used to this kind of stamping plate and testing images, I chose to create an underwater scene. Clear Jelly Stamper is the first company to design this type of stamp plate where each image is made up of multiple etchings. In the design I made today, there were two parts to each image. Some images are made up of more -- and some plates have multiple choices! They are a blast to design nail art with.
Coincidentally, while ordering the plate, more stamping polishes jumped into my cart. Yes, that's my story. Mr. Kimett always believes my stories. I know, he is the best. Anyways...These stamping polishes by Clear Jelly Stamper are perfectly opaque to make a design over a dark background -- yay!!
(Pictures of the plate and polish bottles are shown later in the post...just saying...)
Take a look at these macro shots of each nail...I just loooove the colors...
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| thumb - starfish with waves |
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| Index - sea grass with waves |
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| middle - seahorse with sea grass |
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| ring - fish with sea grass |
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| pinky - sea grass with waves |
The stamping goddess was in my corner on this day -- I didn't find lining up the layered images too difficult. I know there's room for improvement, but I'm quite pleased with the results especially as it was my first time. There's a lot of stamping involved, but it's really quite addictive. I lengthened out the process by taking pictures in between each step, but without that it wouldn't have been bad at all.
Speaking of those pictures, here is a slideshow to give you a feel for how this all came together:
Fun, right?!
And, as if that day couldn't get any better, it was an unseasonably warm and sunny day for March...and I was lucky to enjoy shooting some outdoor shots as well.
Polish Palette
Nail Prep
Base Coat: UNT - Ready for Takeoff (peel-off base coat)
Polish Color
Seal
Top Coat: Madam Glam - No Wipe Top Coat
Stamping PlateClear Jelly Stamper - Treasures of the Sea (CJS LC-11)
Stamping Polishes
Clear Jelly Stamper - White #2, Yellow #8, Intense Yellow #14, Green #11, Blue # 10, Red #9, Orange #22, Pink #6.
Stamper/Scraper
Clear Jelly Stamper - The Big Bling XL Clear Stamper and scraper
**PR Sample Product(s)
And, here's one more look at the final design taken in the warm sunshine (which we are now longing for as Old Man Winter has taken back his throne...grumble, grumble...).
So -- what's the verdict?? Did you like these? I hope so. If nothing else, they are bright and cheery. Do you like the sea? Have you ever seen tropical fish in their natural environment?
Should I ever found myself in the ocean, this is what I want to see. Of course, that would be catastrophic as I never learned to swim. Oops. Ocean on my nails instead. Or in an aquarium. Those are the best options for me. LOL
Have an awesome rest of your day and...
Till Next Time,
