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Shelly - Queen of Negative Sapce
Blog: www.SassyShelly.com
Facebook: Shelly's Sassy Nails
Instagram: @SassyShelly129
Twitter: @SassyShelly129
Pinterest: pinterest.com/SassyShelly129
Google+: Sassy Shelly Ackerman
Hello All! I'm Shelly (aka Sassy Shelly), the Queen of Negative Space, and I blog over at SassyShelly.com. I'm a stay at home mom with a beautiful 3 year old little girl who is my whole world. Surprisingly my polish obsession only started about 3.5 years ago, prior to then I was quite the tomboy. Once I got married I decided I should try to become more of a girly girl and nails were the first thing that grabbed my attention. Although lately I'm starting to develop a slight addiction to make up as well.
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| my first ever peek-a-boo mani from Feb 2013 |
I spend the majority of my days just playing at home with the little one and I work one day a week as a part-time housekeeper (just to earn my own polish $$). My nights are my me time, I stay up late swatching or doing nail and taking pictures. It's the photo editing and writing part of blogging that get me. I swear I have photo editing narcolepsy. I start sorting through pictures and I just can't keep my eyes open! So I'm habitually late in getting my posts up.. To be honest I'm habitually late for Everything. I couldn't get somewhere on time if my life depended on it. I've always been that way. I'm not much of a plan ahead-er or an organizer. That's definitely something I need to work on changing about myself.
We live in a 2 bedroom townhouse so my nail area isn't too impressive (compared to some of the amazing spaces I've seen) but it works for me. I simply have a little desk set up in the corner of my living room with an old DVD tower next to it serving as a makeshift polish stand to hold the stuff I'm currently working on along with all of my nail art supplies. The bulk of my polish collection is kept in Helmers in our bedroom. My hubby came up with the great idea of adding a big piece of glass across the top to set up a little vanity for me to do my makeup at. :) I would do my nails in here too but I like to watch Nexflix while I do my polishing so the living room it is.
I've only been with the Digit-al Dozen for about 8 months but it's so hard to choose a favorite theme so far. Of course I loved my first DD theme "Skittles" and I adore every mani that I came up with during "Black & White" week! I was starting to get into a rut with doing mostly swatches and I was ecstatic to have the chance to join this group. I Love having a reason to push myself to come up with new designs.
My proudest achievement of my blogging career so far has definitely got to be having had the chance to work with the girls at piCture pOlish to create my very own nail polish shade, Badass. I could not believe the amazing response it got and that it ended up being so popular. I knew I loved it but it was so wonderful to find that other people did too! :) That along with being contacted by Nail It! Magazine to do an interview for their "Bloggers You Should Know" series..THAT totally blew my mind! Like, Really, me, featured alongside some of the best nail bloggers out there!? Such an incredible feeling!
I have been deemed the queen of Negative Space or cut-out style nail art. I am totally obsessed with it, as you may have noticed if you've followed my work with the DD, usually one mani out of each theme ends up being some kind of peek-a-boo mani. :)
Negative Space is a pretty simple concept, a little bit of naked nail peeks through the design. There are endless possibilities of different Negative Space designs you could come up with or different ways to do it. A few things I've done are just freehanded an open shape, used striping tape to tape off sections for a color block look or even stamped over a naked nail to create a floating design.
You can even use craft scissors to cut dried polish like I did for the designs pictured above and below. I also created a tutorial on this technique last year. If you missed it then I'll share it with you now. (this was my first tutorial so please forgive the quality)
Step 1) on a plastic baggie paint a thick coat of topcoat and let dry then top it with 2 coats of nail polish.
Step 2) once completely dry use a manicure tool or orange stick to gently peel it from the bag.
Step 3) use a pair of fancy craft scissors to cut strips of polish in your desired width.
(for my hearts I used a heart shaped hole punch)
(for my hearts I used a heart shaped hole punch)
Step 4) this is how it should look.. use care when lining up your 2nd cut so that it is even with the 1st.
Step 5) paint your nails with your favorite base coat (I used Beauty Secrets Ridgefiller) then when almost
dry (still tacky) Carefully lay your strips where you want them.
dry (still tacky) Carefully lay your strips where you want them.
Step 6) clean up edges and cuticle line with a small paintbrush dipped in acetone. Seal in the design with your favorite topcoat. Voila
The best tip I can give for making this technique look good is to use a nice thick ridge filling base coat. My nails aren't super ridgy or anything but I think it just makes for a nicer finished look when the naked nail looks smooth underneath. But there's really no right or wrong to negative space, I think that's what I like about it so much.
Thanks everyone, if you made it to the end of this rambling post I applaud you! I hope you've enjoyed this little peek into my world and that you enjoyed the nail ideas I've shared with you today. If you feel inspired to try a negative space mani of your own or even recreate one of mine (I Love when that happens!) Please tag me @SassyShelly129 on IG or post it on my FB page to share it with me. :) And stop by and visit me sometime at SassyShelly.com.
