What I have been up to lately.

Gradient stamping over a black base.

Negative space 4th mani.

Hello friends! I have been very sporadic in my postings this year. Many of you know of my health issues. I had my cardiac ablation surgery and it has helped tremendously.  I no longer have the arrhythmia that was sucking the energy out of me. I have finally returned to work and am slowly getting my stamina back. I still am dealing with a skin condition on my hands. That is why the skin on my fingers can look so dry and peeling. I have to moisturize and use cuticle oil at least six times a day to keep them looking marginal.

The first mani was inspired by ones done by the talented ladies in World of Nailcraft. I really find the contrast of the black base and colorful flowers to be pretty. I did it as part of a gradient stamping challenge. The second one was a negative space mani. I used the stars teachers stick on graded papers to mask my nail and then painted the base color. When I peeled it off, it looked like that. I then stamped some additional stars in silver. It was easy and fun to do.

I liked the flower mani enough to try and stamp my toes. I still have a hard time reaching them, but they turned out good. It encouraged me to perhaps start stamping all my toes. However, that would make the nail tech that does my pedicures sad. She likes doing nail art. I always feel bad when I say no. I usually only mess with my toes if my pedi gets chipped up before my next pedicure. I can't stand chipped up nails or toes.

I stamped my big toes to go with my nails.

I tried My hand at doing a camo design on my nails. They are done free hand so that is why they are not all the same. I guess that is good because camo should be kind of random to blend in with nature. This is something I will wear again. I like that it takes a tough guy masculine thing like camo and puts on nails.

Camo mani/pedi