Sometimes I have an idea that I absolutely love in my head, but can't quite get the execution right. It has never been more true than with this design, which I did three distinctly different versions of before I got it right enough that I was willing to post it here on the blog. The first two times were hand painted, but they just... didn't get it done for me, so on the third I did a combination of hand painting and stamping and it came together much more to my personal taste. 

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I started by applying one coat of the Born Pretty Rubber Base Coat to all of my nails and curing for 60 seconds, just to give myself a little bit of a camouflaging base to build the nail art onto. For the actual design, I used three Born Pretty Gel Polishes that I actually picked up specifically for the Halloween season, since Orange, Purple and Green are my three favorite Halloween colors. 

For the patches, I started by going in with quite a fine nail art brush to draw in each patch one by one, curing between coats. I wanted the design to be cohesive and feel like it all fit together, so I actually mirrored my first and pinkie fingers to match each other. For the middle finger, I went in with larger patches and a bit more overlap, just to give a bit more visual interest and to keep the ring finger from feeling out of place. 

Because I needed to create the right shape for the pumpkin on my ring finger, I actually stamped the outline image in white first and used that as a template to fill with the orange polish. Next, I used the same technique I did on the rest of the nails to add two patches at the base of the ring finger as well.

For the stamping, I used three different images. Of course, there was the outline of the pumpkin, but along with that I used a layered design for the stitches. I started first by applying the outline image along the seams between colors as best I could and then I went in with the stitches image overlaid on top of those. 

Once I was happy with the design, I finished with a matte gel top coat to bring down the shine and give a smooth finish. And voila!

Honestly, my best friend told me to post the first attempt at this mani and I'm not entirely sure that I shouldn't have just listened to her, but I do really love how the stamping turned out on this mani. Also, it's nice to know that I can use gel polish as a background by just applying the outline of the image to the nail first as a guide.