12 Mani's of Christmas #12... Charlie Brown Christmas Tree!

Happy Christmas!!

I hope you and yours are having a very merry Christmas :)  I'm am going to put this post up quickly so that I can hop into bed, get some sleep, and race over to my in-laws in the morning (altho I am very excited about this mani)!

As far as the colors used... there were a lot lol.  If you really MUST know, leave a comment and I'll do my best to list them all :)

 There's something so charming about Charlie Brown's draw to this pathetic tree... I love it!

 The light blue polish wasn't coming thru really well in my normal camera setting, so I changed the filter to vivid in order to get a better contrast.

 I told my husband that next year I want to have a Charlie Brown tree at Christmas.  He's just as quirky as I am (if not more so hahaha) so he happily agreed :D  I can't wait!

Well there you have it!  Please excuse my horrible cuticles... yikes!!

Until next time!

Stef <3

12 Mani's of Christmas #11... Little Drummer Boy

 Happy Christmas Eve!!

It's almost Christmas, how exciting :D  Today's mani is inspired by my favorite Christmas song from childhood. "Come they told me, pa rum pa pum pum"...

 Colors Used: Julep - Parker, OPI - Goldeneye, Sinful Colors - Nirvana

 I had a bit of a difficult time getting decent shots of this mani.  I used 2 different settings on my camera, vivid and live (L-R)

While I very much liked the vivid setting, Goldeneye got "lost in translation".  I love the bronze tint to my skin tho hahaha ;)

Only one more mani to go and I'm pretty excited about it!  Have a lovely day everyone :)

Until next time!

Stef <3

12 Mani's of Christmas #10... Star of Bethlehem!

Good evening, peeps!

This is going to be a quick post of my least favorite mani in this segment hahaha.  Bear with me...

 Colors Used: Revlon - Royal, Sally Hansen - White On

Blech!!

 I love love love Royal.  It's a gorgeous blue jelly that applies like butter... LOVES it!!  The nail art is lacking tho.  Looks like child's play.  I'm not at all happy with it, but I am forcing myself to share the good and the bad with you.  I thought adding a jewel to it would make it better... garbage I say!  Haha

Well there it is... bah humbug!  My post for tomorrow will be much much better :D

Until next time!

Stef <3

12 Mani's of Christmas #9... Rudolph!

Happy Sunday, friends!!

It is the eve of Christmas Eve so I thought it would be a good time for Rudolph to make his appearance :D  This mani is very... busy lol.

Colors Used: Julep - Hoch (green), Felicity (gold), Delaunay (red), Vera (brown) and Amy (blue), Revlon - Bubble Gum (pink), Love & Beauty - Red Glitter (for his nose)

I had no plan in mind when I started on this mani, I just knew that I was going to put Rudolph on my ring finger.  I just plucked some colors up and went to work! Rudolph's right and antler got into an accident with my nail station (I whacked my hand on the table like a genius!) and so I had to do some emergency touch-ups to fix him.  The mani is still noticeably flawed but... whatev's!

I will have mani #10 posted this evening.  I wonder what it shall be!  ;)

Until next time!

Stef <3

12 Mani's of Christmas #8... Snowflakes!

Hey dolls!

I feel like I have to admit something to you all.  I am REALLY uninspired with my nail art right now!  I forgot just how busy the month of December is for me and so I've fallen behind on posting.  And when I do have a moment to sit and do my nails... nothing comes to me.  And then I just want to sit on my couch and veg.  I'm going to keep trudging along but I'm not all that happy with the mani(s) I did this time around...

 Colors Used: OPI - Goldeneye, Love & Beauty - Silver Glitter, white acrylic paint

Colors Used: China Glaze - Love Letters, Love & Beauty - Silver Glitter, white acrylic paint

Again, I wasn't satisfied with my first attempt so I made another.  Either I'm declining in my nail art talents or snowflakes just arent my thing lol.  I think I like the 2nd attempt better (I always love to see some bare nails showing thru in my mani's... I don't know why :P).  I used acrylic paint because I thought it would be easier to paint with and it was.  I just wish I could have gotten my lines to be a little finer.  I think it's also what I would have liked for my last post with the candy canes.

I think I'm just going to chalk this up to me psyching my self out about getting these done in time.  Maybe I just bit off more than I could chew?  Maybe nail challenges aren't for me :(  I'm not giving up tho!  I have 3 days and 4 mani's before Christmas... I got this!  Lol.

Until next time!

Stef <3

12 Mani's of Christmas #7... Candy Canes!

Hidey-ho!

I can't believe Christmas is only 5 days away, time really flew on by this year.  I have received so many candy canes in the last week.  Different shapes sizes and flavors.  I love 'em!  It's hard to say which are my favorites, I'm so indecisive.  The same holds true for this mani.

I painted 2 different  mani's for this go around.  You tell me which one you like best :)

 Sinful Colors Nail Art - My Day

Essie - Leading Lady

Clean-up on both of these mani's was pretty poor, I was hurried doing them.  The first time I wanted something simple.  I wasn't completely satisfied with it tho, so I started over with a deeper red.  I'm not really njts about either of them.  I don't think they would fall into the category of "my best works".  Maybe I'll get it right next year hahaha :)

7 down and 5 to go, woohoo!!

Until next time!

Stef <3

12 Mani's of Christmas #6... Snowman!

Hello there :)

Yikes!  I am soooo behind on posting!!  It's prime concert season for me right now and I've been working extra hours at work.  Our apartment is a disaster because neither of us have been home long enough to clean... so naturally the first chance I get, I'm sitting at the comp nail blogging lol.

The good news is I've almost completed all of the nail art for my Christmas segment. The bad news... I'll have to double up my posts to get them all up in time.  Oops!  Today it's a snowman...

 Colors Used: Julep - Annie, NYC -  Matte Me Crazy Matte Top Coat

I know... he looks ridiculous without a body lol.  Originally I was going to do snowmen on each nail but my time was limited :(  I applied two coats of Annie and then topped it with the matte polish.  It added a subtle effect that doesn't come thru well in the pics.  This blue is extremely shiny on it's own.

 

 See!  He looks much more normal here :)  

I used acrylic paint to do the snowman's head and nose, black polish for his eyes, and I made a franken pallet of color for the arms.  Doing this mani made me realize how few brown polishes I have.  I tend to stray away from brown polishes for obvious reasons tho hahaha.  

With the small end of my dotting tool, I used white polish to make the falling snow.

I think he's pretty cute.  His name is Bob.

Hopefully I'll get another post out this evening *crosses fingers*.

Until next time!

Stef <3

12 Mani's of Christmas #5... Christmas Lights!

Happy Friday y'all!

Continuing with my Christmas segment, I shall share my string of lights with you today :)  I was partly inspired be the ladies over at The Beauty Department.  I saw this tutorial back in April sometime and thought, "Oh, I'm definitely doing this at Christmas time!"

Their version is very cutesy, but I decided I wanted something a little more subdued...

Colors Used:  OPI - Just Tea-sing!, China Glaze - Hey Sailor, Julep - Annie, Essence - Wanna Be Your Sunshine

I really loved this mani in person, the pics don't do it much justice tho :(  The come off more circus-like than Christmas.  I used 2 coats of Just Tea-sing as my base, clear polish to set the green thread and a small dotting tool for the lights.  I purposely made the lights round because I bought pearl lights to put on our tree this year and I like the style...

With Christmas just around the corner, I'm nervous that I won't get all of these mani's cranked out in time!  I have a majority of them done, I just can't seem to find the time to post them.  December is just super busy for a singer haha.  I shall do my best, tho!  Don't be surprised if I end up double-posting at some point next week lol.

Until next time!

Stef <3

12 Mani's of Christmas #4... Santa!

Hey there!

This one is going to be a fairly quick post (I wanna go snuggle up with my hubby and watch some TV hehe).  For anyone who has not yet read, I am doing a segment on Christmas mani's.  The first of which, and details, can be found here :)  Today I'm doing Santa!

 Colors Used: Julep - Scarlett, OPI - Goldeneye

I am making the executive decision to no longer name the white and black polishes I use.  I haven't changed them in 6 months and I continue to buy the same bottles when I run out.  If it really matters that much, they can be found in previous posts lol.

I originally was going to do Santa's face, but I was short on time and afraid of messing it up.  So I decided to make the mani reminiscent of Santa Claus :)  I also can't get enough of frenchies haha.

This is me and my hubby's first Christmas, and my first ever real Christmas, so I had to take some pictures with our pretty tree and ornaments!

The only thing that I don't like about this mani is the width of  the red tips.  I wish they were a little thinner.  Other than that, I really like the way this mani turned out :)

I think this is the quickest I have ever put up a post lol...

Until next time!

Stef <3

12 Mani's of Christmas: #3... Ornaments!

Well, hey there!

I'm posting 2 days in a row!  Progress!! Hahaha :)  I'm so glad people are reading/enjoying my tutorial from yesterday.  It fells like work that was worth the effort.  I'm going to work on a couple more tuts after the holidays from requests that I've recieved.  But for now, if there are any holiday nails that I've done/will do, feel free to comment here or on my Facebook Page with your request.  I'll try to respond as soon as I can :)

Today I'm going to share the ornament mani I did.  I've been hesitant to share it with you because I'm just not that confident in how it turned out.  I have to accept that while I strive for perfection, I can't always achieve it...

 Colors Used: OPI - Don't Touch My Tutu!, China Glaze - Hey Sailor, Julep - Hoch, Sally Hansen - Golden-I, Sinful Colors - Midnight Blue

This really is one of those mani's where what I had in mind and what actually happened are two very different things... *sigh*

I wish that the gold were more prominent and I wish that the red ornaments didn't look like strawberries lol.

 Alas, it is what it is...

Until next time!

Stef <3