Sunday Stamping: Red & Black

It is Sunday Stamping again in the group Adventures in Stamping and this week the challenge is "red and black," which was the perfect opportunity to try this manicure. I've tried it once before, but the stamp didn't turn out well so I never posted about it. I'm excited that this time it turned out much better and I can show it to you. Also, before I go on with the post, I want address a question I had last week. The stamping group where these challenges come from welcomes all stamping enthusiasts regardless of your skill level so please don't hesitate to join if you are interested!

For this manicure, I started out with a base of three coats of Zoya Rekha , a lovely red, slightly dusky jelly cream. I then stamped using Wet 'n Wild Black Creme and Bundle Monster plate BM-209. The stamp pattern does not have a straight edge which kind of gave me trouble with aligning them evenly on all the nails. With the image being smaller than a full nail stamp, I stamped it closer to one side of the nail and painted the unstamped part of the nail black using acrylic paint. The wavy line from the stamped pattern was my guide for the split....

I chose to use Essie Matte About You over the regular top coat to create the matte effect and I love how it turned out...

Just for fun, here is what the glossy version looked like before I applied the matte top coat. I still like it, but I definitely like the matte version better...

I'd love to know your thoughts on this :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)