Holiday/Christmas Nail Art

Continuation of the first holiday nail set, I have a few more I did over this past Christmas. Christmas was fun to experiment and play around with because there are so many things that go along with Christmas and the holiday season. Snowman, snowflakes, trees, ornaments, gifts, lights, reindeer....arg! It is easy to come up with so many...or simply get lost in the confusion. Another fun Christmas design was Santa and below is the nail design for his head. I did this on a toenail but it could work for a fingers too.



The Santa head is also an easy design for the most part. I started off with a regular base coat and then a I did a base color of a natural beige (Wet & Wild). After than dried, I used red (#94-Fire engine red) and colored the top of the nail area stopping before the halfway point of the nail. This will be Santa's hat. After the red is painted on, the I used a precision fine tipped brush and white polish (ArtClub Nail Lacquer-White) and went down both outer sides of the nail. After the outer edges were painted white, I did the entire front, almost like a french manicure, but a little messier (remember, this is Santa's beard! we are going for scruffy a little). While the beard dried, I used my same white polish and placed a dollop off to the side on the top of the nail, in the red area (this is the little white puff on the end of Santa's hat). Once the red and white polish were completely dry, Santa's face can be put on. I used black for his eyes and mouth, just making two little dots for his eyes and a little swoop mark for his mouth and used my red polish for Santa's nose. I then used a red glitter polish and went over Santa's hat areas that were still red. So that hat look a little darker and sparkles, even though that may be hard to see in this picture.  After that, the design was complete and I ended it with a top coat! I promise I will get better pictures of all my work son!

This was a holiday grab bag of nails! The first nail starting with the big toe is a large snowflake, the second nail is a small Christmas tree, the third nail is the candy cane striped design, the fourth nail is a Santa hat and the last nail is holly and leave. Every toe except the pinkie toe was painted in red polish after a base coat (#94 Fire Engine Red). The pinkie nail was painted in a very light, natural type color. For the big toe, I used white nail polish (ArtClub Nail Lacquer-White) and a precision brush to paint the snowflake. First, I made a crodd in the middle of the nail, going all the way up and down and across both sides. then i added smaller lines on each of the lines I had drawn, almost like an arrow. I drew those same lines again on the crossed lines, this time I drew them close to the tops and they really do look like arrows now. Then I used the same white paint and made smaller dots all around the snowflake. Topped with top coat, as always! For the second toe, I used a green polis (Artclub Nail Lacquer-Green) and a precision fine tipped brush to draw on a small tree. I just drew a thinner green triangle and then drew small but whispy lines coming from it, to look like branches. I used a silver glitter lacquer(Also ArtClub) and made a dot on the other side at the top. I used a toothpick and pulled the dot out a little, down the nail a bit, and it came out looking like a star. Once the tree dried, I put some gold glitter over it to make the tree pop a bit more. Then top coat! The third nail was easy. I used the same white polish as the big toenail and drew a fatter, diagonal line and then a skinny one next to it. I went a space over then made a very fat line and a smaller line but still another fat one. The end product is that it looks very much like the stripes on a candy cane. Seal with top coat and move onto the next! The fourth nail need a white, french tip. After the white tip is on, use the white to create a dot off to the side, in the red. This is the same technique for the Santa head. The pinkie nail gave me very little surface to work on so I made two big green ovals, stuck a red circle between them and holly! Viola! HAHA I seriously had very little room on that nail and I guess it came out okay.... I guess :-/  Ehh, who cares? For those who saw, they appreciated. Most people are too nice to say they look like straight crap but even if they did, it doesn't matter. I think that they all come out looking well, although some look better than others. Practice will keep progressing the skills and thankfully, I plan to continue!


Feel free to leave questions and comments and I hope you enjoyed reading. Thanks!

Holiday Nail Art

Since this hobby is still new for me, and I picked it up right before Christmas, I ended doing some of my first designs for some of my family for the holiday season. I painted my mother's toes, my sister's and my oldest daughter's (and my own, of course!). I feel like I picked up on it pretty quickly. I was able to do several designs that came out pretty good. Although I know as long as I keep practicing, I will continue to improve, I was surprised to see how well they came out for being a first timer. This is a whole new venture for me. I have never done nails or nail art before. I never had really kept up on my own nails...I admit, I am a biter! So to pick up such a hobby seems almost opposite of what someone like me would do, but I am also a creative person. I love all sorts of arts and crafts and have my kids do them as well. I consider nail art my adult "craft" and something I can really have fun with and feel good afterward. 

This is my sister's thumb nail. I did a snowman scene type. I used a base coat, then coated the nail in a metallic silver polish(Wet & Wild). After that dried, I painted on a french manicure white tip (ArtClub Nail Lacquer-White). After the tip was painted white, I made little dots all over the nail (to signify falling snow). Then off one side of the nail, I drew a large circle on top the nail tip, as the snowman's bottom and a smaller circle on top for his head. then drag a small line away from the snowman's body, as a waving arm. After the snowman dried, maybe 4 minutes, I used a red nail polish pen (I Used Migi Nail Art pens) and went across the snowman's neck with red for a scarf and made two little dots, one on the end of his arm, as his mittens. Red is the color I chose but any color that would stand out against white would work fine. After the scarf and mittens, I used a black toothpick to dot black dots for his eyes and a series of dots for his smile. After the design was complete, I sealed with top coat(ArtClub). This design stayed for over a week and still looked nice. Also, it was easy to identify and came out looking cute. The picture is kind of blurry but still shows the design clearly.  So that was a little easier I guess and didn't come out perfect, but hey, it was one of my first ones! Anyways, onto the next!

Another Christmas/holiday design. This is a gift box design. The colors can be switched and used for any holiday, birthday, or occasion but I used these colors because it was for Christmas! I, again, started with a base coat. Then I used a gold glitter nail polish(not sure of the brand) and painted the entire nail in gold. After that dried, I painted two red lines using a fine precision brush and some red nail polish(ArtClub Nail Lacquer-Red). One line went across the nail horizontally, a little further away from the tip than the french tip would go and another line vertically. The vertical line isn't in the middle, just slightly off to the side(either side is okay). After those dried, I used a darker red glitter nail polish (ArtClubs Nail Lacquer-Red Glitter) and made a larger red dot where the lighter red lines meet. It may be kind of hard to see in the photo but if you look closely, you can see the darker red area in the middle. After applying the dark red dot and allowing it to set for a minute, I then drew on two small green ovals (ArtClub Nail Lacquer-Green) off to the side of the "ribbon" and filled them in. Those became the leave to the holly that was the dark red dot. After the design was done, I used top coat to seal. This was very easy and quick to do. Also came out looking very nice. 

I have more Holiday Art and will include those in another post. Please leave me any comments or question you may have and thanks for reading!