Sunday Stamping: Precious Gemstones

I was really stumped this week by the Sunday Stamping challenge in the group Adventures in Stamping. The theme seemed simple enough, to create a manicure using precious gemstone colors. I have been agonizing over it all week trying to decide on the color/stone. I really wanted to stay away from the "typical" colors such as emerald (been there, done that). My first attempt was opal, but even though I loved the manicure (will show you soon), it didn't really look like opal, so back to square one...

Finally it dawned on me that today is my grandmother's 95th birthday and I wanted something inspired by her when I visit later today. She loves garnet and amber and since amber is not really a stone, the choice was clear. I guess sometimes all it takes is a personal connection to what you are doing to get inspired...

I started out with a base of Zoya Mikka and stamped using Dashica Beauty plate SdP-O. The images on this plate are large enough that I can stamp either length or width-wise which makes it easy to rotate the image and each nail comes out looking slightly different. I'm absolutely crazy about this plate. The quality and clarity of images is amazing...

For the stamping polish I used Revlon Princess, a baby blue foil. It worked perfectly for stamping...

For the flower centers, I used amber colored rhinestones. Love the bit of contrasting color plus I got to use my grandmother's other favorite "stone" color...

Just for fun, this is a pair of earrings I made a while ago using the garnet chips that I'm holding in the photos above. I just might have to wear them today to match :)

Zoya Mikka is a shimmery garnet :) color. It has a great formula with full coverage in two easy coats. No problems with application. This has been sitting in my untried pile for way too long. Happy to finally be wearing it today. Swatches here are with a top coat...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: Pulse (now main line) Color Name/Number: Mikka, ZP457 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Camphor

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)