ARTSY WEDNESDAY: Farewell

For my last Artsy Wednesday, I used Rimmel Mintilicious as the base and stamped flowers using Bundle Monster stamping plate BM02 and Wet n Wild Black Creme.

I think this is a fair representation of why it's time for Artsy Wednesday to end. While it was fun to have the challenges, sometimes I just wanted to do nail art that didn't have to do with the challenges, and doing my nails every 2 weeks was kind of hard. I also have been getting busier, hence why this picture is so awful: it's just one I took on my phone.

Check out the other girls' manicures for the last time:

Lab Muffin - Nail & Polish - An Accent Nail - Valiantly Varnished - MASPOOASE - Makeup and Masala - Every Little Polish

How to Store Nail Art Stamping Plates

Sorry I haven't been posting as much!! I moved into my new apartment, and I JUST got internet!

So once I got my Bundle Monster stamping plates (which I recently reviewed), I realized that I didn't have a good way to store them!

I finally decided to cut circles that are as big as each plate out of light cardboard, and put them in between the plates:

The card board keeps the plates from scratching each other. (The plates are blue because I hadn't used these ones yet, and so they still had the blue film that came on them.) I then stacked the plates in a small, round container.

How do you store your plates? Has anyone else seen any good ideas for storing plates? I have heard of people storing them in photo albums, but if you have too many, the album gets too heavy.

REVIEW: Bundle Monster 2010 Nail Plate Collection

I finally got a set of stamping plates! I decided to get a Bundle Monster plate set and a Konad stamper.

I was surprised how small stamping plates are:

I really like some of the designs in the set (like the baroque pattern I used for my designer-inspired nails), but I'm not so crazy about others (when am I ever going to use a marijuana leaf?). Also, I wish there were more full-nail designs and patterns.

Pictures from Amazon

I first tried all of the designs to make sure they transferred correctly, and I had to get replacements for nine of the plates. Bundle Monster's customer service was quick to respond and send the replacement plates, but I was disappointed that one of the replacement plates came scratched. :( However, once I got the replacement plates, almost all the designs transfer beautifully. The only ones that did not work as well were the tiny tiny details, like the smallest hearts (BM 3 and 17).

Also, don't worry about getting the nail polishes they sell for stamping; Wet n Wild polishes worked great with these plates!

If you have the time and patience to exchange dud plates, I would definitely recommend getting this set. It is one of the cheaper sets ($17.99 for 21 plates). I was fine getting a cheaper set of plates and having to e-mail Bundle Monster about dud plates.

Have you tried stamping plates yet? What set did you get? I'd love to hear more about other brands!!

ARTSY WEDNESDAY: Designer-inspired

Today's theme was designer-inspired. I was inspired by this gorgeous Monique Lhuillier dress:

I was pleased that my idea for my nails panned out:

I used Wet n Wild Shine Black Creme as the base, and used paper reinforcements to make the half-moons. [There's a great tutorial here.] I used Wet n Wild Shy on top of the black. Last, I used one of my new Bundle Monster stamping plates, BM-20, to stamp the design on top of my half-moon manicure. 

This was my first time doing a half-moon manicure with paper reinforcements, and I learned how important it is not to use a thick polish for your top color. If the polish is too thick, then it's hard to get a clear half-moon. Also, if you accidentally put too much polish on your nail, you also don't get pretty half-moons. This was also my first time using my stamping plates; I plan on doing a review of the plates soon, and I'll include some tips on stamping there, too. Also, let me know if you would like a more detailed tutorial of this!

Be sure to check out the other girls' designer-inspired manis:

Lab Muffin - Maria's Nail Art - Unnaked Nails - Nail & Polish - An Accent Nail - Valiantly Varnished - MASPOOASE - Every Little Polish