How Does My Garden Grow?

Greetings All!

I've been feeling a bit lazy with my nail art recently. I seem to be wearing a lot of indie polish, and if I do any nail art, it seems to be just stamping. I'm sure I could be very happy with indies and stamping (I know I could be very happy!), but I still feel like I'm not really putting in much effort.

I've been looking through old nail pictures (because I'm a narcissist!), and I used to put in much more effort! Freehand, gradients, manicures that used all kinds of brushes, dotting tools and household items. I was involved in several challenges last year, and that kind of forced me to try a variety of techniques. This year I wanted to focus more on nail art that I chose myself, so that I would enjoy it more. I'm not enjoying being boring though! This has spurred me on to do something a bit more exciting.

I spent hours on these nails. Hours. Mostly because they included something I generally try to avoid - stamped decals. I hate stamped decals. They take forever, and I suck at them! I consider myself to be a fairly experienced stamper, but decals make me look and feel like a total beginner. I made things especially easy for myself by choosing an image from a cheap stamping plate I got from eBay, which didn't want to stamp at all, and straight up refused to stamp perfectly even once!

I started off with some green, cling film nails.

I used Barry M Gelly in Key Lime as the base, then splodged on dots of this random Color Club (it's either Wild Cactus or Abyss), and 'sponged' it off with cling film (actually, a bit of carrier bag. I couldn't find my cling film). I then repeated the process with OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow. I had to take a few pictures, because Aragon has a sort of powdery, gritty, slightly textured look that I thought looked interesting (when I paint it on my nails, the first coat always looks powdery, but it builds very well). I was tempted to leave these as they are, and I probably would have done, if I hadn't spent so long making decals!

It's meant to look like a rose garden! I used plate QA44 for the decals (it's full of rose designs!!), and Konad Black and Red.

If you haven't made decals before, the process itself is pretty simple. I painted a layer of Seche Vite onto a surface I could peel it off once dry (I used the top of a cotton bud box). I then stamped the rose design with Konad Black all over my dried sheet of SV (I used 12, but I made about 17 just in case!). Once they were dry I filled them in with Konad Red (you don't have to be too precise, just don't go over the outside edges. Once you turn them over, you'll see all the black lines, as the side you paint is the side that goes on your nails). I left that to dry, then peeled them off my plastic, and cut them into individual flowers.

I painted my nails with clear polish, then stuck them on!

Bonus pictures - left hand!

You know I'm feeling pretty smug over a manicure when a) I show my left hand, and b) I try out some fancy hand posing!

It feels good to make the effort. I must remember that!