A Chalkboard on my Nails

Hello Readers!

Today I have another back-to-school mani, since tomorrow my oldest baby is starting Kindergarten! Wow,  I can't believe this day has finally arrived. I wanted to put something special on my nails to celebrate his big day, because my kids love looking at my nails, especially if it's a little wacky. ;) I was telling him about why an apple is a symbol for school, and he was like, "I know, I know Mom- you already told me that!" Whoops. I think I might be more nervous for tomorrow than he is.

Anyway, my mani is inspired by chalkboards, apples, and those black-and-white composition books.
I used the apples from the Bundle Monster "Farm to Nail" plate that I used for my "O is for Old MacDonald" mani for the ABC challenge last week.

 It's kind of a small area on the plate, so I did my best to make it fit over my whole nail, but you can see that it didn't quite cover it- there's an empty spot off to the side. I was going to try to do a decal so I could stamp it twice on my silicone mat and make the area bigger, but I guess I've been using my Wet N Wild "black creme" polish a little too much because the bottle was almost empty so I was having some difficulty getting enough polish out to stamp with, and by the time I did it was too dry to get it to stamp onto my silicone mat. Still, those apple images are super cute!

For my ring finger, I used a sponge to dab on white polish over black. I think it turned out more like a dusty chalkboard than the composition book I was going for, but I'm ok with that because it still fits the theme. I added a fimo clay apple charm on top and sealed it in with polish.

For my other fingers, I used another Bundle Monster plate, from the Holiday Collection:

Finally, I topped off my chalkboard nails with a matte topcoat by ORLY, which I've had forever and never actually used before. But, I figured a chalkboard look needs a matte topcoat. I did notice that it smeared my stamping just a tiny bit, though it's kind of hard to tell in the pictures. I used a glossy topcoat on my middle finger. 

I hope you enjoyed this mani, and happy polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper