If It Shines

Today I created a manicure around the theme: "If It Shines, It's Mines!" which is the name of a nail blog owned by Michelle in Ireland. Her contest is pretty wide open, you can come up with whatever you think of concerning shiny stuff. I thought a crow picking at a shiny ribbon would be a good way to interpret the theme. Crows can't resist shiny things! I did this as a sort of nail triptych, as it were. Ha ha!

The base polish is by Essie and it is called Borrowed & Blue. My hubby went with me to Ulta the other day (yes, he is a saint) and saw me drooling over this shade of baby blue. I put it back, knowing I have other baby blue polishes, but he encouraged me to get it. I know! I am so lucky.

The ribbon of silver is made with nail art foil that I got at dollarnailart.com. This is only about my 4th time working with nail art foil. It's a little tricky. This shade is called "Fiber Optics" and has a little holographic shimmer.

You can see some of the shimmer on my thumb and ring finger. Nail foil acts weird when you top coat it, so it's not as awesome as when I first applied it. Ah well, it works in this design.

While I am not ambidextrous, I am getting much better at painting with my left hand. I added a bit of "ribbon" design to my right hand. The middle finger did not work out so well. I tried using the glue that had been sitting on my palatte for a while and it had gotten a little gunky. Lesson learned!

Here are the items I used to make this manicure: acrylic paints in black and white, The Best Glue Ever (to apply the nail art foil), All In One Base from Essie, Essie Borrowed & Blue polish, Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, two sizes of nail brushes, and my plastic lid palatte.

Here's the Essie polish Borrowed & Blue. It's so precious, I just love it. Lighter than a Tiffany blue, and really gorgeous.

Here's the bit of nail art foil that I used to make the ribbon in the design. It can be a little tricky to work with, but it is a fun tool to use in nail art. Check out Robin Moses on YouTube to see how she works with foils.

The entry cutoff for the contest on If It Shines is on September 30th, at which point you will be able to vote for your favorite designs. I can't wait to see what other artists come up with! I will feature the link to voting here when she posts it on her blog.