Glamoween 2013

This year for Halloween DQN is banishing the goo and replacing it with glam! If you would like to join in the fun tag your creation with #dqnglamoween. We would love to see your fab glamorous creations. This is our third glamoween mani with more to come leading up to the 31st of October.

Today's design features:

• Zoya - Dahlia (black Pixie)
• Wing Dust - Feel the burn (hot pink glitter jelly)
• OPI - My boyfriend scales walls

I stamped the sugar skulls with Kleancolor - Metallic Black. I like this polish for stamping as it smears a whole lot less than Konad black and gives you a sparkly effect through your image. The skull images are from the Bundle monster - Create your own collection: plate BM-413

These are the other two manis I have done so far as part of this year's Glamoween series.

Ripped flesh with China Glaze - Ruby Pumps and Essie - Sand Tropez

Dripping glitter with Picture Polish - Heavy Metal and spiky studs. The blood splatter print is also from the Bundle monster - Create your own collection ans stamped again with Kleancolour - Metallic Black.

I love these studs, the multi faceted face reflects the light and makes them super shiny.

They were however very hard to photograph due to their 3D design.

Blood splatter image.

Stay tuned for more glittery, girly manis for Glamoween 2013.

Bundle Monster - Create your own nail stamping plate collection

New to the BM range, a set of plates designed by nail stamping fans. It's a great mix and just when you thought I've got all the plates I'll ever need....think again. They're awesome! Available now from Drama Queen Nails. 

Yeah I love nails too! And geeks!

I'm loving the triangles - this image would work great for reverse stamping.

Dripping paint, whoever submitted that design is a genius.

Kitties and owls and interlocking dots, this a favourite plate of the set for me.

This Halloween plate is so rad....need to use that sugar skull stat!

Dress up your nails for a fancy night on the town.

Finally a zig zag image with thick stripes! I can't wait to use this image.

Oh yes! Love this plate.

Overall this set is really well rounded. It's got a great mix of both full prints and accent images that are different from all the other BM sets. The advantage of having nail stamping crazies dream up designs is that there is a cross over between nail art techniques. Take for example the dripping paint image. Easy to do with a dotting tool but noe even easier with a stamp. 

Bundle Monster - The 00 series

Flashback! Turn back the clock to 2010 and jump in and explore...or revisit!....the original Bundle Monster stamping set. BM were one of the first manufactures to sell plates in sets and with 21 different plates to play with, the 00 series was hot property at the time.  There was a lot to be learnt for BM though as despite the popularity of the plates there were some "cons" that thankfully have dissapeared with each new BM set. So let's explore....

A good way to describe this set is that it was "a good all-rounder". It contained a mix of mostly accent images, some French tip plates, with a few full nail image plates to top it off.

The accent images were cute and girly and stamped well (mostly - I'll explain later). They were a great size and fitted nicely on the nail. 

CON #1 Accent images with very little detail and big patches of space can be very hard to stamp well. You have to be very delicate scraping the polish across as you easily end up with bald patches in the image. Stamping with a plastic scraper or old credit card etc improves this greatly but just be mindful of applying very little pressure as you scrape across so as not to remove too much paint.

CON#2 The whole nail images. Great prints, a mix of girly and geometric but just far too small for the average nail. When customers come to the markets and enquire about good sets for children I point them to the 00 series as they are the perfect size...for kids. They are 1.2cm in height and 1cm in width. You would need to be very precise with your stamping to get them to fit even a medium length nail without having a big empty strip down one side....but a plus if you are good at stamping and have short nails, hardly any cleanup!

CON #3 If you know me you know I am not a fan of French tip nail designs. But plenty of people are. These images can be a little hard to stamp straight. Practice is definitely required. Making stamping decals would be a good way to utilise these type of designs and give you a better chance of applying it straight.

For those taking a stroll down memory lane do you remember when you first got this set....ahhh the possibilities, so many images to choose from and not enough fingers! This was the first stamping set I ever owned and I was thrilled it had a poodle in it. It made me realise that I really loved stamping with full nail images but that I just wasn't going to be able to use these due to their size...sad face!

If you have little nails or kids wanting to get into stamping this is the perfect set! Available now from www.dramaqueennails.com