Hi lovelies,

So I've been making a good head start on my New Year's resolutions and done another member of the Avengers as part of my Avengers Assemble series. Today, we have Thor, Norse God of Thunder...

While I was pretty happy with them overall, and very happy with some elements, I do think it could have been done a lot better. I was really quite proud of my lightning bolts and I reckon I've improved since I last tried them. It was just a pity that the pink bled through into the white when I applied my top coat...

Because these aren't the most straightforward 'Inspired By' nails I've done, here's a little run down on what each nail is meant to be.

Inspired By: Avengers Assemble - Iron Man

Hi lovelies!

So, does anyone remember that series I begun/challenge I set myself to do nail art based on all of the Avengers? If you don't, that's totally cool because my last ones were all the way back in September. But, I decided I actually needed to complete them and so here are my latest ones!

When I first did these, I was really, really, super proud of them. I thought they were a great concept, nicely designed, within my capabilities and they executed well too. However, so far, only about 3ish have guessed who these nails are based off of. In the past 3 days. I have to admit, I lost a bit of faith in my abilities because of that... Most seem to think they're based on a woman and even when I narrow it down to a character, in a movie, that I really like, they still didn't get it. Lots also thought they were Christmas themed nails.

Nail Art Inspired By: Jeans

Hi lovelies,

So, I've got another Inspired By post for you today, one that I've been meaning to do for aaaaages and have been sitting around in my un-posted file for almost as long! These nails were inspired by a pair of jeans that I own and ever since I bought them I've been meaning to do a nail design based on these.

I did buy these jeans about a year ago, so it did take me a while to get round to it, but hey, I did it eventually! To be honest, mostly I was putting these off because I didn't feel my skills were up to doing it justice, but then I figured that I could do them now and then even if they were a bit crap, at least I had tried and done some practise and I could always revisit them later. :)

Nail Art Inspired By: Avengers Assemble - Captain America

Hi lovelies,

So, I disappeared again.... The reason this time is even sillier than normal (and it's a little sad that I have a 'usual' reason for my occasional and completely unexplained absences but let's move on). Basically, I got stuck writing one post and so just hid from it. Which also included hiding from every other potential post I could have written in the meantime, while I struggled with this particular post.

Anyway, today I thought I'd post one of my favourite nail designs that I've done in a long time. This is my second contribution to my Avengers Assemble collection and yes, I am going to do all of them and no, I have no clue what I'm going to do for some of them (Hulk? Hawkeye?).

Luckily, the Captain was actually fairly easy to translate into nail art, thanks to the simple design of his shield and uniform and I am really proud of them.

Nail Art Inspired By: Fifa World Cup

Hi everyone!

So, who’s excited for the world cup final??

Actually, if I am completely honest, I’m not that excited. I’ll watch the soccer while it’s on, but I’m not a massive fan. However, my sister and dad are quite into it and so I keep up with the scores and the goss and as a result, have been quite sucked into the world cup this time round. :)

But, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some appropriately themed world cup nails, could I? However, because I had done my nails only a day before, I was not taking them off, so it's a good thing my mum was happy to have some soccer themed nails. :)

I was actually really proud of them! Especially the Argentinian flag. I honestly thought that was going to be a flop, but it turned out much better than I expected. I don't actually think it's recognisable as the Argentinian flag by itself, but with the soccer balls and German flag, I'm hoping/assuming people will get the gist. :)

Nail Art Inspired By: Marceline The Vampire Queen

Hi lovelies,

As you would know if you've been reading my Monthly Favourites, I really quite like Adventure Time. It'ss just so soothing and lovely and wonderful. For a children's program it's surprisingly well-thought out and the characters are really quite three-dimensional.

Anyway, I won't go into the rest of the reasons I love Adventure time right now, but if you are interested, I did write a little more in this Monthly Favourites.

While my favourite character has to be Finn, Marceline comes a very, very close second. She is just a pretty cool girl and I love her songs. So when I decided to do Adventure Time nails, she was definitely my first choice. I just think she has more scope to incorporate in a nail design.

Or at least, that's what I thought when I started out. I had a great plan to do a little Marceline face on each thumb, bats on a couple of fingers, one nail of her guitar and one of a full body, or at least a torso, to make sure I could include her fabulous hair! So I started off and did the thumbs and they turned out great! I was so confident I was going to nail this design.

I mean, look at that - it's so true to life! It looks very much like her.

But then, I started doing the other nails. The bats turned out okay but the guitar nail and torso nail just flopped. The guitar was completely unrecognisable as a guitar and I went a little overboard with her hair and she ended up looking a little bit like one of the trees from The Lorax. Well, if the tree bit was bigger and black and the trunk was shorter and was split in two and was red (for her boots).

For defs what she looked like. Only, in black and red and shades of grey. Source here

Nail Art Inspired By: Cath Kidston

Hi lovelies,

Well, this post was meant to be up a lot earlier, but then I forgot that I was going away for a week and so, it didn't get posted.

But, these nails... I really love them. Like, a lot. These are definitely one of my favourite designs this year, if not my absolute favourite.

They were also inspired very heavily by the works of Cath Kidston. It took me a long time to come around to liking her designs, mostly because they are very floral and am not generally a very floral person. However, I can't deny that some of her stuff is just lovely.

Inspired By: Avenger Assemble - Black Widow

Hi lovelies,

So, I went on a bit of a nail painting spree over the last couple of days and did my nails a lot as well as plan out many other designs. These were probably my favourite ones, mostly for the reason that I've been planning to do some Avengers themed nails for ages.

These, in case you hadn't got it from the pictures or the post title, these were inspired by the Black Widow. In hindsight I probably should've started with an easier Avenger to translate into a nail design, but oh well. Actually, I did think about that before I started, but disregarded that nugget of my own advice. Pretty much because I just really love the Black Widow and Scarlett Johansson.

Inspired By: Minnie Mouse

Hi lovelies,

So, today we have another 'Inspired By' manicure. To be honest, I hesitated about making this one of my series, just because I didn't feel it was 'inspired' by Minnie, it was more a literal interpretation of her. But after thinking about it and looking at the design a bit more, a came to the conclusion that it did belong in this series. (Also, my youngest sister thought I had gone insane and starting painting Christmas designs again....). And that definitely cinched it. If she thought that my interpretation of Minnie Mouse looked like a Christmas design, it definitely was 'inspired by'! Oh, and if you, like me, are wondering how she managed to get Christmas out of this look, check out her response to this design. :)

Over all, I was really pleased with my design. I'm feeling much more confident in my small dotting skills and I just really liked my overall layout. I actually thought while I was doing it that all the dots were going to be too much, but when I'd finished all the nails, I found that they didn't over power the design.

For this design, I used Sizzling Red by ulta3 (red), Snow Me White by Sinful Colours (white), Black Satin by ulta3 (black) and the black jewels were from a Sportsgirl nail art wheel. And, isn't it just great when all your nail polish names actually have the colour that they are in the name! Or, maybe that's just me and I get weirdly excited about small things....

Check out my other posts in my 'Inspired By' series here.

Inspired by: Sculptures By The Sea

Hi there everyone!

So, I've decided to start a new series on my blog here where I do nail art that has to be inspired by something. (Actually, I think that was fairly self explanatory, but, oh well).

I've done a couple of inspired designs (like my dress ones (here) and my more recent Lily Allen ones), but I really think doing a more regular ones will help my technique and design execution. Or at least, that's what I hope.

Anyway, this one is inspired by the Sculptures by the Sea, which is a annual art exhibition and competition that's held at Cottesloe Beach in Perth. It was the first time I've gone and I really liked it, although I will admit I was a little tired, crotchety and over it by the end. It was really windy, there was a lot of walking in the sand, and I just don't get a lot of art. I mean, I can appreciate it for it's beauty and construction, but I can't look at it a see it as representation of something or read meanings into stuff or whatever it is that Opinionated (my art student sister) sees when she looks at them.