Hello lovelies,

Earlier, I have shared with some of you that I have been lately in a creative slump. I haven't felt inspired, I didn't feel like doing any nail art not even anything overly festive. Few days ago it changed - I got contacted by minted.com inviting me to check out their site. I've noticed they have an art marketplace section with different art prints. I came across so many inspiring artworks and I finally felt that familiar urge to paint! Today's nails are inspired by a Dazzle Berry Art print. I didn't copy it exactly, but I took the idea and modified it for nails. I also wanted to use more natural colours even though I absolutely love the colours the artist used.

I've taken pictures to create a tutorial for you as well. Here's how to do it:

1. Apply base coat
2. Apply two coats of white nail polish. I have used OPI Alpine Snow
3. Paint the nails with a thin coat of white acrylic paint
4. Thin down red acrylic paint with water and put droplets on the nail using brush. Pat the brush on a paper towel to get rid of the excess water in the brush
5. Use the brush to soak in the droplets on the nails. It should leave coloured outline or dots depending on how long you wait. you don't have to wait longer than few seconds
6. Continue adding these 'watercolour style' dots
7. Thin down darker shade of red acrylic paint with water and put droplets on the nail where the lighter drops are. Try to overlap them or do imperfect dots so they add dimension and shading
8. Using brown acrylic paint and brush, roughly paint branches
9. Thin down white acrylic paint with water and add highlight to the branches. Do it the same way as the dots - paint it on watery and then soak in the excess water
10. Using black acrylic paint and thin detailing brush, outline the branches and add few more black lines to add dimension
11. Use the watered down dark red acrylic paint and thin detailing brush and connect the berries to the branches. Paint few empty stems without berries
12. Topcoat the nails. I have used OPI Matte Topcoat but if you want the artwork to last the longest possible time then use regular topcoat first and then matte topcoat

This is the original artwork that inspired these nails:

I can't wait to recreate more artworks from that site, there are so many beautiful pieces! I've spent hours at their site just browsing and THEN I've noticed they do wedding stationery too! Oh my goodness I've seen so many beautiful designs and have spent couple more hours browsing them. What a wonderful site! If you would like to get inspired too and browse their Art Marketplace and latest art, the address is www.minted.com/art ;) Apart from art prints and wedding stationery you can find there Christmas cards, photo cards, map presents (which are super cool!), party decor and more.

It feels so good to do such cool art and post again! I truly hope you've enjoyed it and if so then let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Have a lovely Sunday! Lucie x

This manicure consists of two main elements - polka dot nails and the kaleidoscope design nails. The polka dot ones are plain easy and created using dotting tool so I'll focus on the kaleidoscope design nails.

How to:

Step 1 - Paint several rectangle shapes larger than your nails on a non-porous, smooth surface like a plastic folder or a silicone pad using a top coat. Once they dry properly stamp over them with your chosen design.

Step 2 - Start colouring in different parts of the stamped design using small brush and different nail polish colours. Bear in mind that the parts that are transparent will be in the colour of nail polish you are wearing underneath

Step 3 & 4 - Paint your nails with two coats of nail polish and let them dry OR apply the decal over the second layer of nail polish while it's still wet. Apply coat of topcoat over the nail which will seal the decal in place

Step 5 - Clean up all the excess of decal and edges of nails using flat brush dipped in acetone

Products used:

Spell Polish Smile Transference

Spell Polish Swinging Through Stars

MoYou London Kaleidoscope 04 stamping plate

Konad Special Stamping Polish in black

Seche Vite Top coat

Small detailing brush

Here's a video tutorial on stamping decals I did earlier, it's basically the same process only with different design:

I think that this design would look even better in some bright colours but I wanted to use the new Spell Polish multichromes and I really liked to see the colour-shift in the design. What do you think? What colours would YOU use?

Have a good day and stay polished! Lucie x