Friday, December 25, 2009

Tip of the Week: Mixing Colors

New video--

Hi everybody!

We were playing around and recorded making a light blue from basic blue and white Konad Special Polish, which are two very handy colors to have. I use Royal Blue alot lately.

To blend the colors together to create a new color, quickly and repeatedly scrape the colors across the engraving three to five times, switching directions or turning the plate 45 degrees each time to really get it mixed evenly.

Basic Color Refresher:
White + Red = Pink, or put simply White + Any Color = Pastel
Black + Any Color = Darker Hue

and remember your color basics...
Red + Blue = Purple
Yellow + Blue = Green

You will have to experiment a little to learn how much of each color you need to get the shade you want. I use just a little of the darker shade and about twice as much of the white to get a pastel blue.

The Gold, Gold Brown and Silver are somewhat sheer but sparkly, as well as any of the colors called "Pearls" by Konad. They look vibrant in the bottle, but will need more careful planning to ensure a good color presence. I like putting the metalics against Black for a subtle variation on the black nails. So keep in mind the sheerness when selecting a color to mix with, it will result in a shimmery version of the mix, without a great intensity like a metallic such as Sally Hansen's Chromes (love them as a base coat, even though I've read that some people get them to work on their plates--they don't work worth a hoot on my plates though).

Have a Fabulous Day!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Christmas Snowflakes on Blue



My Christmas snowflake nails, on a base coat of Wet'n'Wild Bijou Blue. Stamped white snowflakes from Image Plate 59 in a flurry, centering one flake and edging in a semi-random pattern to make a flurry of sorts. Since I am sor of in need of a fill, I ended up placing three rhinestones in an arc to distract from the faint ridge, then i finished with a Silver Shimmer topcoat by Konad, the only topcoat I have found that consistently does not blur the images.

Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Decisions, decisions

OK, so sometimes the hardest thing about nail art is deciding which design combination I want. Right now, I cant seem to decide. I have gotten stuck on Image Plate (IP) 57, with Zebra and Fishnet and a super cute flower the past month, and simply could not resist this echo of last week's nail design. I used the month before I was stuck onn the swirlies.
I have a white base coat by Milani on, then alternating fishnet and zebra, then layerd the flower on top. All from ONE plate. The fishnet and zebra are in Konad Special Polish Black, and the flower is white.