Nail Crazies Unite - Ugly Sweater

This week's prompt was Ugly Sweater. I do have a few Christmas Sweater plates but I just received a new one along with a whole lot of beautiful pates from Messy Mansion so I had to try this one.
I had ordered three of the new XL plates (the knitty ones of course) but the lovely Messy Mansion people sent me seven other plates to review - this must have been my best Christmas present!!!
MM82XL has 12 images on it, all really large and actually since I had just cut my nails down, larger than I needed but I always love large images as I can use parts of an image. There are 2 sweater images on the plate, one is virtually a negative of the other which is great, I always love that option and because my nails are so short I was able to use the top and bottom parts of each image to create different images on 4 nails.
I had a dark red gel base on (I thought it was black when I bought it) so I went with the bright limey green 2 True Arete for the stamping. The images stamped really nicely. I did have to swipe sideways to get the full image on the "negative" pattern, when I went up or down I didn't spread the polish well enough but I loved how these looked when I had finisged and quite frankly, not "ugly" at all!!

Messy Mansion MM82XL

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Pastel Christmas

I had a few ideas about pretty pastelly wintery scenes but I was a bit worried they'd be too pale and the detail would be lost so I went for a more clashing pastel thing with a pastel Christmas Jumper.
I started with a base of Barry M Laguna and Barry M Bikini and then I used Dixie Plate DP06 with Esmaltes Da Kelly Bee and Colour Alike Sweetheart.
No step by step photos this time as I freehanded the blue/green split and it wasn't worthy of a photo.
Not quite sure what I think about the outcome, probably a wintery scene would have been better!
I look forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with.

Dixie Plate DP 06 with pastel shades

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Crazies Unite - Candy Cane

This week's prompt was Candy Cane.
I have some lovely plates with striped images that would be perfect for this and because I love stripes I was tempted to use them but I also have Messy Mansion Merry Christmas which has actual candy canes on, and they can really only be used in the Christmas period so I thought I'd better use them.
I am wearing a white gel base this week so I though I'd keep it simple, but I couldn't resist having red and green ones, and yes I know most candy canes are red and white.
I decided to be brave with some reverse stamping so I stamped with A England Saint George and Rose Bower and coloured the stripes with the same alternating colours.
They looked a bit bare either side of the main image so I added some Christmassy glitter with Magic Goose Reindeer Dance.

Messy Mansion Merry Christmas

 

An InLinkz Link-up

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Christmas Preparations

This weeks prompt was Christmas Preparations - I hate wrapping and am no good at baking so for me the best Christmas preparation is decorating the tree.
We haven't done ours yet this year, but I always dream of a nice dark tree with silver/white decorations, so that's what I did on my nails.
I started with my fanbrush base of green, red and blue (Ard as Nails Missy, 'Ard as Nails Lazy Afternoon and Barry M Laguna) and then I used a lovely plate I got last Christmas Messy Mansion MM30.
I used A England Proserpine for the dark boughs of the tree and then used For Your Nails Only Snow Queen for the decorations.
I was really pleased with the outcome but it was so dull outside I did struggle to capture this one, despite taking over 100 photos.

fanbrush base

Messy Mansion MM30 with  A England Proserpine

Messy Mansion MM30 with  A England Proserpine
 and For Your Nails Only Snow Queen

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Crazies Unite - Holiday Movie

This week's prompt was Holiday Movie and to be honest absolutely nothing sprang into my mind until I was looking at my new Christmas plate from Dixie Plates and it hit me, of course! The Snowman - we watched that year after year and I love it as much now as I did back when I was about 14. I know it isn't technically a movie but it is such a part of Christmas.
So, I started with a base of Colors by Llarowe Chasing a Unicorn, which I can finally wear because I have a pale gel base on underneath, and then I stamped the snowmen from Dixie Plates DP 06 with A England Camelot.
I top coated and then coloured in the hats, scarves and noses with Sharpies. I did not top coat again as that usually results in smudges and I find the Sharpies last pretty well anyway.
I did also add a matte top coat (ignoring or forgetting that it will smudge! - looks like I almost got away with it so I took a couple of matte shots too)

Dixie Plate DP06

An InLinkz Link-up