26 Great Nail Art Ideas: New Year New You

Hello Readers!

Today over at Crumpet's Nail Tarts we are invited to explore an interesting theme: New Year New You. I like that this prompt really makes you think! Every year I like to go along with Ali Edward's one little word prompt and choose a word to focus on throughout the year. Actually I think I forgot to do it last year, ha ha, but this year I am excited to get back into it.

This year's word for me- or phrase, really- is "Radiate love". This comes from some soul-searching I've been doing over the last few months that involved me going back and reading some of the extensive journaling I did back in my high school/early college days. Reading about how happy and fulfilled I was when I was focusing on uplifting other people and feeling and projecting love to people around me made me realize how much I wanted to reconnect with that person I used to be.

So my mani is based on my intention for this year- to focus on spreading love to others around me.
I chose colors that are happy to me and that are some of my favorites. I wanted the mani to feel light and happy.

So I started with two coats of white for a base and stamped in gold and a mint blue color. I decided to do a gradient type stamping technique for the hearts by putting both gold and blue onto my stamping plate and then scraping. Though the colors don't really fade into each other, I'm pleased with it.

I really wanted a sunburst-type pattern for the background on my middle nails to represent a motion coming from within and going out into the world. I found my sunburst on this Bundle Monster blogger collab plate.

The adorable little hands forming a heart come from this MoYou London Hipster plate. Loving this plate!

My little hearts come from a different Bundle Monster Blogger Collab plate, this super versatile one by elleandish.

Finally, I thought the little speech bubbles from this Born Pretty plate would represent my desire to make an effort to try to brighten the day of strangers and look for ways to show kindness in smaller and simple ways. 

I can't wait to see how others interpret this challenge! Be sure to check them out in the link-up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Simple Sunday Jan 1, 2017 with Bundle Monster Blogger Collab

Hello Readers!

I almost didn't end up doing a Simple Sunday post today because of New Year's Eve, but our plans fell through so I figured I might as well paint my nails. ;)

Today's mani is simple in that it uses only two polishes and just one stamping plate, but fair warning about stamping these images- it is helpful to have a few tricks up your sleeve for these delicate designs!

For one, clear stampers definitively help when you are going for a half-moon type look because it's a lot easier to see what you are doing. But the other issue is that these delicate lines can be finicky and they like to come up off the nail when you lift your stamper back up after applying them. To remedy this, you can press the stamper straight down (with no rolling) over the nail, and hold it there for just a couple of seconds before lifting back up. This will give the stamping polish a chance to stick down firmly to the nail so it won't lift back up with the stamper.

My polish palette is super simple today, with just the periwinkle color and my favorite white. I did three coats of the OPI polish, though I might have been able to get away with two.

Finally, I used images from this plate for my stamping. I love the little half-moon lacy shapes on this plate.

Happy New Year to all of you! Here's hoping 2017 brings you lots of joy.