Polar Express Inspired Nails Recreated

Hello Lovelies! I know its still a bit early to get into Christmas nail art designs but this past Friday we had a Polar Express movie viewing party. I used this as an excuse to recreate the Polar Express Inspired nails that I created last year.   I love to do recreations because it is a great way to see what kind of progress I've made and what techniques I've improved upon.  This is what I created this time...

I started with a gradient base using China Glaze "New Birth," "Capacity to See Beyond," & "Well Trained."

I sponged a little bit of Sinful Colors "24 Karat" across the center of all my nails.

Using my favorite calligraphy pen and silver ink I scribed "Believe" across my pointer, mid, and ring finger.

I layered white ink over the silver so that the silver created a shadow affect.

To create the jingle bell on my pinky, I used China Glaze "Swing Baby" and a large dotting tool. I then used my calligraphy pen and black ink to add detail to the bell. I added a bit of red ribbon using an Art Club Duo pen.

I used image plate QA57 from bornprettystore.com and silver stamping polish from Mundo De Unas to stamp a small snowflake over the "I".

I also randomly stamped snowflakes on my Cindy hand.

I did my usual clean up with gentle acetone and a brush, and topped it all off with a glossy topcoat.

Here is a comparison of the recreation and the original...

I prefer the gradient in the newer version of this design. In fact, I love this gradient. I also prefer using the calligraphy pen and ink. I have better control with the pen, and the calligraphy ink is similar to acrylic paint in that if you make a mistake you can scratch it away when it dries and start fresh.

It is really nice to see progress when doing these recreations. I am pleased with what my practice has produced. I hope you enjoyed this nail art recreation. Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

Gilded Gold Shamrock

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  I had so many ideas for St. Paddy's Day nail art designs, but like always I didn't have enough time to create them all.  However, I wanted to create one more design for this week's Nail Polish Queens' Challenge.  I saved this one for the NPQ challenge because I felt the design was fit for a queen.

I happen to find some gold calligraphy ink the last time I was at my local craft store, so I thought it was time to try another calligraphy pen design.  I used a calligraphy pen in a previous Valentine's Day design and I really liked using it.  This is what I came up with this time around...

I created the gilded gold shamrocks over Revlon Colorstay 'Rain Forest' which I topped with a matte topcoat.  I find that the matte topcoat helps applying the calligraphy ink. 

I decided when the design was complete to add a glossy top coat, and paired it with one of the polishes from the 7 Tales of Luck & Whiskey indie collaboration set I mentioned in my last post.

This seriously glittery green and gold polish is Simply Beautiful 1973 'Blarney Stone.'  I'm not a big glitter fan, I never really have been but I just can't get enough of this.  It's so sparkly and incredibly opaque, I applied two coats both in the swatches and for today's nail art.

As for today's nail art, you can see from the pictures that I drew the design on both hands.  This is the first time I have ever wielded a calligraphy pen with my non-dominant hand.  Though I need a great deal of practice with using the calligraphy pen (with both hands), I am pretty pleased with the results.

I hope you enjoyed this nail art design, and I hope you are all having a wonderful St. Patrick's Day.  Thank you for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,