Stained Glass Accent

Hey there everyone! How is everyone's Saturday going? Mine has been wonderfully relaxing with the exception of a few loads of laundry.

I am super excited about today's post. As you know I am participating in the flip/flop February put on by Jilian over at jilltastic nail designs, you can check out her blog here.

So today's challenge options were stained glass or accent nail. This was a rough decision for me...I knew I didn't want to just do an accent nail because I often do those and this is a challenge meaning you should challenge yourself. Problem was I have never done a Stained glass nail, didn't really know if I wanted it on all of my nails, and to be honest everything I googled for this technique was really not my style. And then I saw a super detailed super awesome design that was of a scene from a church window. I knew I wouldn't be able to pull that off but it gave me the inspiration I needed to refine my search. I finally found a cute dragonfly stained glass art piece that I thought I might be able to pull off. You can check out the artwork here.
Since this was my first attempt at this I decided to combine today's options and do a stained glass accent nail.

I started off with just one coat of Zoya's Zuza

 Then looking at my picture for reference I began to carefully paint on my dragon fly using some acrylic paint from a set my sister gave me for Christmas (seen above) and my thin paint brush 

After letting that completely dry I decided to do the outline of my "glass panes" with a dark blue sharpie (I could not find black to save my life). I am not sure if this is considered cheating because I didn't use black paint but I just new I wouldn't be able to outline it without messing the whole thing up (I am extremely new to freehand painting designs).

I am so pleased with how these turned out!!!! I know its not super crisp but for me this was pretty freaking good!

Here is a picture of the accent nail next to its inspired piece

Not too shabby if you ask me :o). Hope you all enjoy these as much as I do. Also don't forget to check out the other talented ladies joining me on this challenge journey

Thank you all for stopping by! Check back tomorrow for day three, pretty sure I am going to try my first water marble so it should be interesting!

Keep it polished!
<3 Jess

the wishing flower

Hey all! Long time no post! So sorry for that. I have been crazy with work and planning my birthday party, yay!!!!

Anyways just a short post today to show off a little something. Yesterday I got together with my mom and had a chance to do her nails which was so fun for me. 

We decided on a "wishing flower" design. This "flower" is special to us because when I was young I would often pick them for her  on special occasions (mothers day, birthdays etc.). I had no clue they were actually weeds, to me they were beautiful and I loved making wishes.

After seeing the design on pintrest I knew it would be something my mom would enjoy. Please be warned the picture isn't great and,love my mom, she just couldn't sit long enough for me to clean up the edges so its a bit messy.

:0) even though its a bit messy, I like it for the pure sentimental value.

Now for the info: I used China Glaze Exotic Encounters which is an awesome forest green with a slight undertone of an almost blue? Lol obviously these are my descriptions and not those of the polish maker ;0). For the flower I used acrylic paint and nail art brushes, this was my first time using the acrylics and I like it much better than trying to paint with nail polish.

I did my nails as well today while watching football but will have to make you wait till later as I am about to meet up with one of my besties.

Have a great day and as always...keep it polished!
<3 Jess