Simple Nail Art 1: Ikat Print

After how well my Galaxy print nails turned out yesterday, I decided to try another effect I have been wanting to experiment with for a while- Ikat print. I'm going to make a little series out of this - Simple Nail Art. I am in no way a expert and am pretty useless at nail art, I don't have a very steady hand, but I like to try out new things so I will be attempting some simple nail art designs and doing little "how to" guides.
There are some really good tutorials on youtube for this, but basically it is the simplest nail art effect ever because the more messy it is, the better it looks. I don't have a very steady hand so do find patterns quite difficult to get right, so I love how simple this one is.

There are loads of pictures around of different ways to do Ikat and I think it looks great in all different colours but I tried to recreate one I had seen and loved, with purple and coral. I have used Barry M Gellys just because I love them. I used my Natural Collection white polish as it is the only white I own and seen as I only use it for nail art, I don't need a fantastic quality one. Models Own nail are pens are also perfect for the outline on the print.

I don't want to do a full tutorial as there are loads of good ones already, so I'm just going to do a quick step-by-step guide.

First paint on your base colour, I used Prickly Pear...

Once the base is dry, paint on white splodges where you want the design to go. This doesn't need to be neat and they can be any size you want.

Over the white, add splodges of your second colour (Papaya), again they don't need to be neat (look at the state of mine!)

Finally, add small amounts of black to the centre of the pattern. Using small brush strokes so you can see the strokes, outline the white areas. Once its dry finish off with a top coat and clean up the edges.

This was the finished design cleaned up. I really like these and they are so simple to do, so I will be trying them in different colour ways. A few of my friends asked if they were nail stickers last night so obviously even the messy bits where it didn't quite go as I wanted don't affect the look of them.

Has anyone else tried Ikat print, I'd love to see them? Any ideas for more simple nail art ideas would also be appreciated!