Christmas mix and match

 L-R: glittery red, elf tights, tree texture and fuzzy Santa suit red

As soon as December comes around I'm the first person to don the Santa hat and pop my favourite Christmas tunes on.  But this year I'm a bit late to the festivities.  Normally I'm all over the Christmas nail scene, but I've been under the weather most of the month and doing my nails has been the last thing on my mind.

I finally pulled my act together with some Christmas mix and match nails.  I couldn't decide on just one pattern, but fancied something bright and eye-catching.

We had just finished decorating our tree and I decided to take inspiration from the Christmas decorations hanging around.

I started with a red glitter on my little finger, sadly the camera just wouldn't pick up how lovely a glitter this was, but it was almost identical to the bauble in the second image!  My pointer finger was inspired by an old musical Santa figurine handed down from my great grandma; he has a lovely velvety suit and so I brought out my trusty flocking powders and pressed it over my nail to create a velvety effect.  My middle nail was supposed to be a textured Christmas tree effect, again the camera didn't do this justice.  For this I painted the nail green and pressed a long stranded glitter over it -  up close it really did look like pine needles.  Last, but certainly not least (as these were my favourites in the bunch), are the zigzag 'elf tights' patterned nails.  For these I painted the nails white.  Once dry I placed zigzag stickers over my nails and painted between them, alternating red and green.

If you're not a whiz at nail art or are in a rush (who isn't at this time of year?), using stickers like these are such a great way to create special looking nails without faffing around for hours.

P.s. Apologies for pictures as grainy as a bowl of Weetabix but I was all bundled up and warm on the sofa and couldn't be bothered to reach further than my phone...

First ever post... and fuzzy kiwi nails!

A few days ago I had some flocking powders arrive in my letterbox.  I love the velvet nail look but it was something I was afraid to try when I first saw it making the rounds.  It looked like a messy job and I was certain the powder just wouldn't stay on once I'd washed my hands.

I decided to try a test nail the day I received the powders, and surprisingly it stayed on for about 4 days, so I decided my next painting session would involve the flocking powders somehow... but I wanted something more interesting than just velvet nails.

A few days later I happened to get some fimo fruit slices in the post too, and when I saw the kiwi slices I remembered the odd brown coloured flocking powder that I thought would end up at the bottom of my stash, never to be used.  It turns out that brown colour is a perfect match for kiwi skin and inspiration struck.

 

I was really pleased with how these turned out; they're quite eye-catching, and definitely unique.  And the best bit is they were really quick and easy to do.  I'm now trying to think up some more inventive ways to use flocking powder...fuzzy peaches maybe?