Blogiversary Fine Artist Swap

So when I was deciding what to do for my blogiversary I tossed around a few ideas back in May. The first was a contest, which seems to be becoming the standard for blogiversary celebrations. This was appealing, but I've been so immersed in the art side ofthe community lately that I wanted to do something a little different. I sat down and made myself a list of my top ten detail artists that I follow. I then reached out to only my top three and crossed my fingers!!

My idea was this, my 'fine art' artists would choose a piece they see as fine art and inspiring and recreate it as a mani. My job then, was to try and keep up! Below, I'm very proud to finally show you the results. 

First up to respond with a yes is Narmai of the Piggieluv.com blog linked here and her Instagram page linked here.  Narmai has gotten notorious lately for her 'story series' manis and her insane detail work. If you haven't seen her Instagram page it's an absolute must and one of my tops for a reason.

Narmai's selection was this surreal image called Dreams of Elysium by Ann Marie Bone linked here, who is an amazing artist and you need to go see her work!

Now I kept track of my art steps as I went along for those of you interested in how these detail manis go down. In the larger picture you'll see an image Narmai sent me of her final and I used it for reference as well.

Tada here it is my final look! I'm nervous, and hope you all love it.

And without further ado, the genius herself sent us this for your viewing pleasure! Just look at that bridge! Insane!

My other lovely lady was Viv of @Ka_yee_or on Instagram ....linked here. Viv's page is eclectic and cute. She does a large range of styles and this isn't the first of her designs I've recreated on my blog, but it's the first time I can say I'm posting with her. The image she chose was this stunner called Red Canna by Georgia O'Keeffe.

I chose to try and recreate the image once per finger. And this is how all that work turned out. I really love the final look and vibrancy of this manicure.

When Viv sent me her look I was completely in shock and awe! I couldn't process how different and amazing her manicure turned out.

I'm really happy to have reached this one year milestone. I'm pretty proud of my little blog, and hope my little group of readers is loving what I do as much as I love what these girls do for me.

Cheers all,

Guest Post over at Beltane Secret

I recently did a Guest post over at Beltane Secret linked here. Her art on Instagram is funky and fun as well if you want to check her out. Here's the look I did below. Head on over via the link if you would like full details.

Cheers all,

Guest Post from Emma

I recently  helped out a fellow blogger with a guest post while she was away prepping for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. Emma has decided to return the favor, and sent me this stunning blue manicure. You know I love blue, so I might need to recreate this one some time!

Now over to the lovely Emma.

Hi Guys! I'm Emma from emma23mereta.blogspot.co.uk, and I blog mostly about nails and my volunteering adventures.  This is the first ever guest post I have written, and I don't think I've ever been more nervous about doing a manicure AND trying to get good pictures of it. So I must apologize for the quality of my photos! 

Mandy was kind enough to do a guest post for my blog while I was away helping with preparations for the Commonwealth Games, and you can see her fantastic manicure here*. It's amazing... no pressure then!

The topic of this post is 'Favourite Colour and Favourite Technique'. My favourite colour is blue, and my favourite technique is dotting - although I seem to have lost my dotting mojo recently! Here's what I came up with:

I started off with a base of Revlon - Blue Lagoon (Light blue), and then added two coats of an un-named dark blue polish on my thumb and middle finger - it ended up a little textured, and I'm not sure if it was meant to be like that or not.  On my index finger and little finger I used two coats of a thin blue polish with glitter flakes in it, again un-named.  For the dots on my ring finger, I used the un-named dark blue polish along with CK - Electric Blue, a beautiful Mid Blue and a light blue High Brow Polish.  I used several dotting tools with two different ends creating varying sized dots.

I hope this post hasn't been too amateur for you, and if you enjoyed it just a teeny bit, you could (as Nelly once said) "come on over to my place" and check out my other posts.

Thanks for this opportunity Mandy!

OK, so Emma is adorable and so is all her work, so anytime she wants to stop by I'd be happy to have her!

Thanks to Emma again for letting me post on her blog as well. (maybe another one when she is busy during the games!)

Cheers all,

Guest Post Over At Emma's Space

This link  will take you over to a guest post I created for Emma over at Emma's Space. Emma is another lovely girl I met in those a Facebook groups I've told you about. Emma has been away this week working on preparations for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. How cool is that!

Go take a look at the post and have a great day!

Cheers all,