Mix & Match Christmas Print Nails (with pictorial)

Hello friends! I am finally free from exams, and it feels amazing. I feel so liberated and weirdly energized for some reason, despite being so sleep deprived in the past couple of weeks. With my first few hours of freedom, I did my nails (typical me). I've compiled a couple of Christmas designs on both my hands and will likely be posting them during the next couple of days.

Being my usual indecisive self, with the addition of my jumbled-up brain, still fried from my exams; I just could not settle on one single design to put on my nails. I wanted cuteness, and I wanted color and I wanted my nails to be 500% Christmas-y! ....And that is how I ended up with this design. My nails just scream "CHRISTMAS!", and they fill me with holiday spirit.

The holidays really are the most wonderful time of the year, even if you don't really go out of your way to celebrate it. The streets are filled with cheer and everybody just seems happier around this time. People get together with their families and it just feels so wholesome. I, for one, cannot wait to get back home! I miss my brother dearly and I really want to bring him to Build-a-Bear (for his first time ever). I'm so excited!

Ah, enough of my rambling, continue reading to see my tips and tricks on how to create this manicure (along with a pictorial)!

• Start off with a nude base:
• My base color consisted of 3 thin coats of NYC's Pink Champagne (a beautiful and light translucent pink with little golden flakes
• On top of that I added one coat of Sally Hansen's Diamonds (fine, almost translucent glitter)
• The designs are created using a thin paint brush and various colors of acrylic paint
• Candy Canes:
• Create the outlines of your candy canes by drawing J-shaped hooks on your nails using black acrylic paint, it does not matter these are completely filled in
• Next go and fill your canes using white acrylic paint, making sure to leave a thin and visible black outline
• Using a very thin brush and red acrylic paint, add the stripes on to the candy canes
• Gingerbread Men:
• Create the outline of the cookies using black acrylic paint; this may be easier if shapes are used to map out the body (circle for head, rectangle for body, and long ovals for the legs/arms)
• Fill in your gingerbread man using brown acrylic paint (I mixed red, green and white to get this color); making sure to hat you will still be able to see a thin black outline
• You may need several layers to get it to be opaque
• Using a very thin brush and a small dotting tool, add the eyes, mouth, buttons and misc decor for your gingerbread man
• Christmas Trees:
• Create the outlines for your christmas trees (triangle for the body, small rectangle at the shortest side of the rectangle for stump, add and asterix-like shape on top for the star)
• Fill in your trees using green acrylic paint for the body, brown for the stump, and yellow for the star
• Using 2 colors of your choice, "decorate" the tree by drawing lines diagonally across the body
• Santa Hat/Stocking (2 very similar designs)
• Create the outlines for your santa hat/stocking using black acrylic paint
• Fill in the fluffy/fur part of the stocking/hat using white acrylic paint; the edges can be somewhat more jagged to make it look more fluffy
• Fill in the rest of the hat/stocking using red acrylic paint
• Finish off you design with a topcoat to seal in the acrylic paint, and it's as easy as that!