Nail Challenge Collaborative - A New Beginning #1

Hey there!  Holy, it's three weeks into February and I'm just now getting around to posting my first Nail Challenge Collaborative mani for this month.  Luckily this group is pretty forgiving with it's posting schedule so as long as I can post two this month, I've kept up!  February's theme is "A New Beginning" which spun my head a little bit.  I'm honestly the most boring person you'll ever meet.  My life has been pretty consistent for years so I don't remember the last "new beginning" I had (at least not any that didn't end pretty soon afterward).  But one of the suggestions was wedding nails so that's what I did.  So I was the single girl with very wedding-ish nails, all for a nail art challenge.  The things I do for nail groups...

First of all I should mention that I know my lighting looks really off in these photos.  I used a powder to give my nails a pretty pearl-y look (inspired by this post from the lovely Kerry aka Painted Fingertips).  But then I noticed that in order to get my camera to pick it up, I had to have the light settings pretty low.  But it's worth the zombie hands to show off this base.  

I liked every step of this mani so much that I took pics along the way starting with my white gel base with Born Pretty Store powder rubbed on.  The number written on it was 30738-7 but I think it was one of these but who knows with how wacky Born Pretty's numbering can be sometimes.  I've ordered a couple different sets of powders from there and neither of them match the number that was on the package.    

The powder gave it a slightly pink/lilac shimmer so I stamped a lace pattern from UberChic Beauty Love & Marriage 01 with Mundo de Unas White.  I didn't give me the cool 3D effect that Kerry's had but it's still so pretty.  

And finally, on top of that, I added some love birds in Mundo de Unas Pastel Blue, from the same stamping plate and finished with some HK Girl top coat.  

So that's my first New Beginning mani for this month.  I have already done my second one so the only challenge will be getting my lazy butt to actually post it within the next week!  Check out the links below to see lots more New Beginning designs.  I love some of the unique takes on this theme.  People are so creative!

'Til next time...

An InLinkz Link-up