TDOCNAS 2014: Day 12: Wishing You a Wild Christmas with Leopard Print Nail Art!

Yeah, I went there! I love hand drawn leopard print, so I figured why not give it a festive touch?? You know you love it! By the way, Merry Christmas everyone! Let's get to the nails, shall we?

I started out with a base of Zoya Taylor instead of my go-to OPI My Vampire Is Buff because I wanted a slightly deeper tan. I used China Glaze Jolly Holly and Cranberry Splash (shocker!!) to dot the random leopard spots on each nail and then outlined them with plain black polish. I'm so in love with this look! I haven't done leopard print in ages and it's just so cute with the red and green.

I hope you all have a wonderful, safe, and wild Christmas! :-*

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 11: Glittery Reindeer Nail Art

Happy Christmas Eve everyone! I hope you have all of your affairs in order and are all having a wonderful day. I'm working until 1 o'clock and then heading over to our annual family Christmas Eve party later tonight and I can't wait! This is my absolute favorite time of the year. Anyway, these nails were inspired by my obsession with glittery reindeer this season. I know it's weird, but I can't help it! I'm hoping to pick up a couple on sale after Christmas. ;)

I used Zoya Godiva on my pointer and ring nails and plain black on my pinky and middle nails. I wish Godiva had photographed the way it looks in real life; it's so sparkly but it doesn't translate at all in the photos! I used Godiva to paint my little reindeer as well and finished him off with a China Glaze Just BeClaws nose. I also did some Just BeClaws dots on the rest of my nails to tie the look together.

See you tomorrow for the last day of the Twelve Days of Christmas nail art series!!

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 10: Winter Berries Nail Art

It's the week of Christmas! Yay!! Today I have some simple nail art inspired by the bright red berries that grow around here in the winter. They are such a vivid pop of color against a bland winter landscape and I thought they would be perfect for nail art.

I started with two coats of China Glaze Don't Honk Your Thorn for my base and used Zoya Louise to paint the branches across each nail. I dotted the berries on using China Glaze With Love and topped it all off with top coat! Easy!

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 9: Festive Negative Space Nail Art

I've seen this "negative space" nail art popping up a lot recently and thought I would give it a try with a holiday twist. I wasn't sure how I felt about them before I tried one, but it turns out that I really love them! I might even wind up wearing this as my actual Christmas manicure.

To create this design, I applied one coat of KBShimmer Basic Training base coat and let it dry completely. Once that was done, I used KBShimmer straight nail vinyls to block off the parts where I wanted my natural nail to show through and painted Zoya Ziv near the cuticles, China Glaze Jolly Holly in the center, and China Glaze Cranberry Splash near the tips (can you tell that those are my absolute favorite holiday polish shades?).

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 8: Silver Sideways Snowflake French

Good morning! We're going a little less festive and a little more wintery for today's nail design. I love the snowflake stamping plate that I got from Born Pretty Store so much that I've been using it all the time! You'll definitely be seeing more nail art with it after the Twelve Days of Christmas series is over.

I started out with two coats of OPI Don't Burst My Bubble (my favorite sheer pink ever). I used hole reinforcers to block off part of my nail and painted China Glaze I'd Melt for You to create the sideways french shape. I stamped the snowflakes using Born Pretty plates QA57 and QA58 and Konad special white stamping and finished the look off with silver rhinestones in the center of each snowflake.

I can't believe in a week it will be Christmas Eve! I can't wait!

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 7: Festive Dotted Nail Art

Good morning and happy Monday everyone! Today's design is a super easy but seriously pretty dotted manicure. I love this one because they remind me of festive ornaments!

I started with a base of OPI My Vampire Is Buff (my favorite neutral, in case you didn't notice!). I used China Glaze Cranberry Splash, Jolly Holly, and Zoya Ziv to create the dots. I did the large size first and then filled in the space with the smaller dots.

Make sure you tag me if you recreate these! I love seeing your work!

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 6: Christmas Star Nail Art

You guys know I love obnoxiously festive Christmas nail art, but I also really love low-key designs too! This star design is one of my favorites because it's so pretty and holiday-esque, but totally wearable for every day.

I used two coats of Zoya Jacqueline as my base and then used Zoya Ziv to paint the star shapes on each nail. I also used Ziv to create some dots to fill in the spaces on the nails too. I finished the look with a couple of rhinestones and top coat!

Are all your presents bought? I'm waiting on a couple more things but have every thing else wrapped so far! :)

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 5: Snowy Forest Nail Art

Good morning! I'm so happy with these nails and I'm dying to share them with you! Last week, I came across a repost of Nails By Jema's wintery forest nails on Instagram and I knew I had to try to recreate them.

I started with two coats of Rescue Beauty Lounge Bella for my base and then "watermarbled" with KBShimmer White Here, White Now (this technique was borrowed from MadamLuck). You just let a little drop of polish fall into the water and spread and stick your nail in and it creates a lovely snowy look! Once that was done, I used Zoya Evvie and SquareHue Na Prikope to create the pine trees and some plain white polish for the snow on the trees.

They're so pretty and wintery without being obnoxiously festive. But you could add some garland and ornaments to the trees if you were feeling obnoxiously festive! What do you think?

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 4: Fair Isle Snowflake Pattern Nail Art

Every year since I can remember, my mom has either made or bought special Christmas pajamas that my siblings and I got to open on Christmas Eve. When I moved out, Joe and I decided to keep the tradition and he got me these awesome gray and white fair isle fleece pajama bottoms from Old Navy last year. I was thrilled to find a matching pattern on one of my new stamping plates!

I started with a base of two coats of Zoya Carey and then stamped over that using one of the patterns from stamping plate QA57 and Konad special white polish. I can't even tell you how many times I had to re-stamp these because I couldn't get them straight! It was so frustrating but they turned out okay in the end.

Do you do the Christmas Eve pajama tradition with your family? I love it!

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 3: Red & Green Snowflake Gradient Nail Art

Hello hello and happy Friday! I'm so excited that it's almost the weekend! I've got a lot of relaxing and crocheting to do the next few days. ;) Anyway, for today's nail art I decided I wanted to try some stamped snowflakes over a gradient. I debated a bit on the colors for the gradient but ultimately went with red and green to keep it festive instead of just wintery. I'll probably do some winter gradient snowflakes at some point, so don't fret.

I used Zoya Evvie, Hunter and China Glaze Jolly Holly for the green gradient, although Hunter doesn't show up that well as the middle color. I used OPI Coca Cola Red and China Glaze Tip Your Hat and Cranberry Splash for the red gradient. Once those were all done and dry, I stamped over each gradient using snowflakes from Born Pretty plates QA57 and QA58 and Konad special white stamping polish.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out but I wish the three colors in the gradients would have stood out more. I just don't have that many shade options in green and red!

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 2: Candy Cane Nail Art

I did candy cane nails two or three years ago and remember being so disappointed in how they turned out, so I decided to revisit them this year! I'm happy to say that I'm much more pleased with how these turned out! I decided to stamp them instead of trying to use tape and I'm way, way happier with them.

I used China Glaze With Love as my base color and stamped over it using a wavy stripe pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM-207 and Konad Special White polish. I topped everything with a coat of Zoya Sparkle Gloss and KBShimmer Clearly on Top and called it a day! I'm always surprised at how vividly the Konad white polish stamps over colors, but I guess that's what it was made for.

Are you all decorated for the holidays? We have our annual ugly sweater party coming up next weekend so I've been decorating for a while trying to get the house perfect!

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 1: Half Moon Wreath Nail Art

I'm so excited that it's finally time for the Twelve Days of Christmas nail art series (TDOCNAS for short :P)! I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that I look forward to doing Christmas/holiday nail art all year long; this is my favorite time of year and I love having festive nails! The caveat is that each year it gets harder to come up with unique designs, but I have some pretty fun ones in store for you guys.

I started with a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff. Then, I used a dotting tool to create the wreath shape with China Glaze Glittering Garland and I also dotted some China Glaze Running in Circles over the darker green to give it a little more dimension. The hardest part of this design was creating the bows; I drew them first with white polish and then repainted them with red so that the red would stand out over the green. I'm not totally thrilled with them but they look adorable from regular viewing distance, so I'll call it a win!

Make sure to stop back on Wednesday for Day 2! :)

TDOCNAS: Day 12: Festive Stamped Scroll Design - MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas to everyone who will be celebrating today! And to everyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a great day! The last design for my Twelve Days of Christmas series began with a sponged gradient of red, green, and gold. Specifically, I used China Glaze Cranberry Splash, Jolly Holly, and Zoya Ziv. I went over it once or twice to make sure it was saturated and vibrant and then I stamped the scroll design from Gals plate GA33 (I think!) in white over top.

I want to end this post with two separate inquiries. First, tell me what you thought about this series! Did it inspire you to do some nail art of your own? What would you like to see for next year's Twelve Days of Christmas series?

Secondly, I want to know what your favorite Christmas tradition is! Where do you spend the holidays? Do you rush around to a bunch of different family member's houses or do you get to relax a little at one place? What do you eat? Do you do a secret santa or do you buy gifts for everyone?

I'll be visiting my parents and my fiancé's parents this morning and then heading to my grandparent's for the rest of the day (and for an awesome ravioli dinner!). Joe and I opened our presents last year on Christmas Eve after he proposed to me, so we did that again last night! Anyway, have a fantastic day everyone!! :-*

TDOCNAS: Day 11: Minimalist Christmas Tree Nail Art

Ah, Monday again! I won't be too miserable today though because there's only two days left until Christmas! This month really flew by. Today I have some super simple minimalist Christmas tree nail art to share with you. :)

I started out with two coats of Essie Sand Tropez for my base color and allowed it to dry completely so I could form the tree shapes using tape on top of it. I painted China Glaze Glittering Garland inside of the taped area and carefully peeled the tape away right after. I finished the nails with a golden yellow rhinestone at the top of each tree and a coat of top coat to seal everything in. I'm always so intrigued by minimalism and I love how these turned out!

TDOCNAS: Day 10: Textured Ornament Nail Art

Happy Friday!! I'm so excited for this weekend so I can finish up some wrapping and just relax. The past few weeks have been so crazy and as much as I love the holidays, I can't wait for things to calm down a bit. I wanted to do ornament nails since last year and my initial inspiration was to do them as half moons, but I like how they turned out at the tips!

I started out with a base of China Glaze Cranberry Splash and used a matte top coat over it. I painted the ornaments using OPI Honey Ryder, Zoya Chita, Zoya Sunshine, and OPI Baby Please Come Home. To finish the design, I used a nail art brush to create the ornament tops and string with Zoya Trixie.

What do you think? Did you put up a tree this year? Real or fake? We went to a tree farm and picked out our tree this year and it's so full and wild, I love it!!

TDOCNAS: Day 9: A Very Mickey Christmas!

I've been having a terrible desire to go to Walt Disney World the past few days so I thought a Mickey mani was in order for the Twelve Days of Christmas series! I started out with OPI My Vampire's Buff on all my nails except the ring nail. I created dots using black, Zoya Ziv, China Glaze Cranberry Splash, and Zoya Tracie.

On my ring nail, I painted two coats of Zoya Tracie and then used a black liquid eyeliner to draw a Mickey Mouse head. I used a small nail art brush to create a santa hat shape with ChG Cranberry Splash and then used white polish and a dotting tool to create the furry lining and the puff at the tip.

I decided that a trip to WDW in the wintertime is on my bucket list. I want to see the castle all lit up with icicle lights so bad! Has anyone ever been? Tell me about it!

TDOCNAS: Day 8: Santa's Belt Nail Art

Good morning everyone! Today's nail art was inspired by Santa's belt. I started with a base of two coats of China Glaze With Love. I carefully painted a horizontal stripe of black across each nail and then used Milani Signature Gold to paint the buckle.

I can't believe that we're already on Day 8! Christmas is only 9 days away! Have you finished all your holiday shopping? How about wrapping?

TDOCNAS: Day 7: All Wrapped Up!

Another one of my favorites! These gift-wrapped nails are super festive, cute, and easy! I started out with a base of two coats of China Glaze Cranberry Kiss. I used the brush from China Glaze Jolly Holly to create a cross on each nail for the green ribbon and then I used a small nail art brush to paint Zoya Ziv over the green stripe and to paint a bow on each nail. I finished the design with a gold rhinestone in the center of each bow and a coat of top coat. Will you be trying this one out?

TDOCNAS: Day 6: Santa Hat French Manicure Nail Art

Good morning everyone! I have to admit, I am SO excited about all of these designs! I keep wanting to type "these are my favorite!" for each one of these posts, but I suppose that would get a bit redundant. I love a fun twist on a french mani and these are about as fun as it gets!

I started out with a base of OPI Don't Burst My Bubble and I used Essie Leading Lady to create a thick red tip and a bit of a curved shape for the rest of the hat. Then, I created the fur trim by dotting white polish along the red tip. I finished the design off with a silver rhinestone at the tip of each hat and a coat of top coat. They're so darn cute!

TDOCNAS: Day 5: Navy Snowflake French Manicure

Good morning! I hope you all had a great weekend! Today's nail design is a classy french manicure using shades of blue. The base color is Zoya Natty and I used two coats. I waited for it to dry completely before I applied hole reinforcement stickers and used China Glaze Midnight Mission to create the french tips. Once that was all done, I used Konad white polish to stamp snowflakes on my middle nail. I finished it off with one coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

What do you think? I love these elegant french-type of designs!