Artsy Wednesday - 2 colours

Hi there guys and girls,

Here I am, back with another installment of Artsy Wednesday.  This weeks theme means that we can only use 2 colours.  I was pretty excited about that, because while it's quite restricting, it's also very liberating, as they can of course be ANY two colours!

At first I wanted to do black and white, as it's supposed to be uber-trendy this season.  Then I had a bit of a think.  OK, so the magazines are telling me it's trendy, but apart from a few aztec leggings, I haven't really seen many people actually wearing it.  So is it just a trend they tried to make that didn't catch on?  Or maybe I'm not mixing in fashionable enough circles, which is always a possibility haha.

So then I toned it down a bit, and did yellow and navy.  And while it wasn't a total disasticure, it wasn't really neat enough, so I dismissed that one too.  I'll post a pic at the end of the post to show you.

So then I tried copper and blue.  Which was nice, but I wanted to stamp with it, and the copper wasn't opaque enough.  So FINALLY that brought me round to what I finally came up with.  Pink and grey.  Why didn't I think of that straight off the bat?  It's one of my favourite colour combos. *hits self on head*

I'm still having to use my weaker hand to paint with at the mo, as the left hand little fingernail that I was patching up finally grew out past my nail line, so I ripped it off.  I'm no good at getting my patches smooth, so it was making any polish job look a bit poor.  And since I don't want to subject you to the odd length nails I'm sporting on that hand at the moment, it's a weak hand mani or nothing!

Therefore I knew it couldn't be anything too complicated, so I brought out my tools.  This is what I came up with:

These are both Nails Inc polishes.  The pink is Marble Arch, and the grey is The Southbank.  The formula on both of these polishes is excellent, and they could both be one coaters if your nails aren't too ridgey.

I painted my nails with alternating colours, and then applied a coat of Seche Vite.  This is a tip I picked up from Sammy at the Nailasaurus (link to post) in her tutorial.  Then once that was dry I stuck a paper filing hole reinforcer to the top of my nail and then some striping tape stretching between the reinforcer and the free edge of my nail.   Then I painted over the top with the opposite colour, then peeled off the reinforcer and striping tape immediately after.

Once I had done this with all my nails, I then did my dots with a smallish dotting tool.

These are the tools I used:

The striping tape is actually gridding tape from Ryman the Stationers (link) I have both the 1.5mm and the 3mm versions, but on this occasion I used the 3mm, which is a bit wider than regular striping tape, and I like it because I don't find it curls as badly as usual striping tape.  The reinforcers were just cheap ones from Wilkinson.  The dotting tool is a Cheeky one I got from a set from Amazon (link) £1.63 for 5 with free shipping, how do they do those prices?  So nothing too expensive there (apart from the polishes of course) if you want to create this look on a budget. 

I'm on a low-buy myself at the moment, because my cars tax, MOT (two new tyres, could have been worse) and insurance have all come along at once, sigh...

Here's a pic of the nailart in the sunshine:

I really like how this came out.  Marble Arch is a softer version of Devonshire Row, one of my favourite Nails Inc polishes.  It's got a colour block look to it without being too plain.  Here's the gratuitous bottle shot:

It manages to be quite striking without being too in your face.  Unlike my original attempt, which I mentioned at the start of the post:

I painted my nails light yellow, and then used a Sally Hansen nailart pen to draw the design.  The idea isn't too bad, but my lines are the little bit too wobbly for my liking.  It maybe would have been easier with a striper.

Once again I'm grateful to Artsy Wednesday for making me get off my bum and do some blogging.  I haven't had any inspiration for a week or so, and this has woken my brain up again. 

Don't forget to check out what the other lovely Artsy Wednesday girls have to offer this week, it's always fascinating so see how different our designs come out even when the theme is the same:

Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)

Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)

Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Jessica at Beauty Gnome (link)
Emily at An Accent Nail (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)

And a big welcome to our newest additions *waves*

Anna & Haylee at  Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)

Do you have a favourite two colour look?  I'd love to see it!

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~