Once Upon a Time Challenge - Day 1 Storybrook/Enchanted Forrest....

So it's been a while - almost a year to be exact since I've last posted. Things such as travel and new jobs have got in the way but now I'm attempting to start again:) It's taken a nail art challenge to give me the push I needed to start blogging again. The details of the challenge can be found here - http://tatjanag.blogspot.co.uk Created by Taya.

As soon as I saw that it was Once Upon A Time I knew I had to give it a go - I'm a wee bit addicted to that show, especially the story line of Snow and Charming :) If you haven't seen it I suggest you check it out, it's a good 45mins escape of TV show.

Today is the 1st day of the challenge and as it's my afternoon off I've manage to get it done (in between re-paints of nails, fixing chips & a broken down car - it's a long story).

Anyway the topic today was Storybrook/Enchanted Forrest - which for those of you who watch Once Upon A Time, the enchanted forrest is in the opening montage every episode.  I was aiming for the look above - so gradient blue, black silhouette trees and once upon a time worked in there somehow too.  Unfortunately, due to lack of a sponge and clashing colours it didn't go exactly to plan but I'm still pretty pleased with the result.


The polishes I used were Rimmel London 198 Azure (from Boots), La Femme Beauty blue (from Kradvat), Essence Nail Colour 3 01 Midnight date (also from Kradvat), Konad special polish in Black and baby blue.

First up started off with using Rimmel London in 198 Azure as my base coat.

(fingerless gloves due to coldness of my room, gotta love old English houses in Winter).

Then added my second colour, the La Femme Beauty Blue.

Then the final colour on the tips, Essence Nail Colour 3 01 Midnight date.

After waiting a REALLY long time for that to dry (usually gradients are done using sponges, but didn't have any to hand so just layered up the polish, ending up with 3 layers on the tips, hence the drying time) moved onto the stamping.

I used tree image from plate BM-225.

I mentioned that there was a long story behind my nails and today - here it is:

1. I added a tree in black and decided that you couldn't see it clear enough.

2. Tried tree again, this time two tone, black on base with blue on top.

3. Felt it needed more so added Once Upon a Time across all my nails using Konad letter stamps in Gold.

4. Decided it was too busy so removed nails, re-did gradient and stamped tree again.

5. Drove to a friends and chipped a nail on the steering wheel.

6. Cursed the Car.

7. Car got it's own back, as on the way home engine died and had to wait 15 mins in the cold minus one glove till it would go again.

8. Made it home and did some retouches.

9. Finally finished and took some pics (didn't have the energy/enthusiasm to fix the edges).

Anyway here is the finished product.

I put the baby blue konad across the top of the stamp and black across the bottom then one quick swipe and I had a two toned tree that showed up great :)

And here is the first attempt - as you can see the letters came out but looked like a bit of a mangled mess :P

The next mani in the challenge is Favourite Villan from Once Upon a Time and pretty sure I've got a character in mind - just gotta work out a mani:)

Till Tuesday

Nikki x