The Tri- Polish Challenge, Day 14/ June #2: Midsummer/ Midwinter French

Hello everyone!

The challenge in Adventures in Stamping on Sunday was to make a french manicure. I also wanted to make Midsummer Night nails, but because I have readers in the southern hemisphere too, I chose to make a combination. But guess who broke a nail, and had to cut off what was supposed to be a french manicure?Therefor I stamped summer flowers, and made a diagonal snowy french. I also used the rules for the Tri- Polish Challenge. I used all three of the TPC colors. (I told about them here.) You can find thumbnails to the other TPC participants' "Day 13/ June #2 Nails" at the end of the post. But first more photos, a list of what I used, and then how I did it step by step. This is the photo I've shared earlier:

Midsummer/ Midwinter French

Summer Solstice/ Winter Solstice

If you live on Hawaii where there is a pleasant temperature year round, and the sun rises and sets at about the same time every day, I can't imagine that summer solstice is a big day for you, but it is a special day for those who live closer to the poles, because it's the longest day of the year. I haven't celebrated midsummer since I was young, but it's always a little sad that it's getting darker and darker and that we are getting closer to winter again, but at the same time we have many summer days ahead of us, and it's nice to enjoy the long summer nights. On midwinter day I'm usually just happy that the days will get longer, and that summer is on it's way. It's so much stress to get the nails ready (for photographing) before the sun goes down in winter, but thanks to an Ott- Lite lamp it's possible to have daylight whenever I need it.

Midsummer/ Midwinter French

Used:

GOSH #598 Bubble Gum -pink

GOSH #571 Wild Lilac -purple

H&M Cherry- red, used for stamping
Konad: SP White- stamping polish
Stamping plates: Pueen 25 (flowers, snowflake), HB 23 (snowflakes)
Striping tape: white (as guides), pink metallic (for decoration)
Stamper & Scraper from KKCenterHk

You will also need base coat, scissors, a brush, a little glass for acetone, and lots of fast drying top coat.

Here is a closer look on the polishes I used for stamping:

Midsummer/ Midwinter French

What I did:

After some testing, I decided to go for the design on my pinkie. As you see on the photos below, I painted the nails pink, and stamped flowers with the red polish and Pueen 25.

Step 1

I made a diagonal purple stripe with the brush (from the bottle) on the first nail. But now I used striping tape as guides.

Step 2 and 3

And stamped snowflakes with Konad SP White and HB23 over the purple tip. I was very careful when I placed the snowflakes, and even used a brush with acetone to remove every tiny little white spot that had crossed the line, before I applied topcoat. Here you see what it looked like before that:

Step 4

But I felt that something was missing, and added the pink metallic striping tape. (I lost the striping tape on my ring finger twice, although I covered it with top coat. Not sure what I did wrong, or if it is something with the tape.) If I had thought of using striping tape earlier in the process, I probably wouldn't have to think so much about making a clean line...

Step 5

I always use a base coat first, and top coat between each step to make it dry faster, and to be able to remove the image if I don't succeed with the stamping. I feel a bit stupid for using a Q- tip dipped in acetone (instead of a flat brush), and then have to redo a nail. It was much easier to use my "clean up brush"...

Now you can take a look at my fellow TPC participants' nails! Just click on a photo if you want to see their blog post.

Lani