Santa Claus is Comin' To Town

This one may be a ways towards the abominable side of the spectrum. I had a grand idea, and...well, it was executed. I'm so not good at straight lines.

For the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge, the song I couldn't get out of my head was the Fred Astaire version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".

You're very welcome.

So I started with a base of Finger Paints Cerulean Seascape with a couple of coats of Darling Diva Ringer (it's a lot like Fantasy Fire! Lovely!) that I'd been wearing for a couple of days. It looked suitably wintry-night-ish. On my thumb, I overlaid a few coats of Sally Hansen CSM Runway Red-y and made a belt out of Sinful Colors Black on Black and the weird Style Essentials Gold. On my index, ring, and pinkie, I made houses out of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, L'oreal Park Ave Luncheon, and Sinful Colors' Savage, respectively. I added roofs in the gold, and dotted on windows and doors in black. My middle finger is supposedly Santa's beard -- it's a coat of Commander in Chic with White On saran-wrapped on top.

Does it look like a town? Like a beard? I think I have Santa's belly under control (though if it were black, it might look more like a pilgrim hat than a belted torso!)

It's a learning experience, and I'm having a ton of fun trying new things. I sometimes wish the actual results had any connection to what I'm picturing in my head, though!

Go see what the awesome things my fellow challengers did!

Turkey Marble!

Happy Thanksgiving, to those of you who are celebrating today. I think it's wonderful that we take time to expressly put gratitude into the world, whether we do it every day, or just today.

So this is my second shot at a water marble. I started with a coat of Sally Hansen CSM Haute Chocolate, then marbled a mix of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, L'Oreal Downtown Chic, Finger Paints Sketch n Etch, and Sally Girl Amped. It started out rough, but I got better at it with each finger, so my right hand worked better than my left.

I dotted on each individual color in the barer spots, and I really like it. I think I've got more of the hang of water marbling. It's still a huge pain and messy as heck.

Time for me to make some green bean casseroles and give thanks with my loved ones.

NOTD: Fire! Flames? Something like that....

So my original plan here was to make a sun-rise gradient, but halfway through the process, I decided I wanted brighter red on the tips, so I changed it to flames by sponging on the color in a oval way instead of straight across, and added the blue dot like the center of a burning match.

I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Mellow Yellow, Sally Girl Amped, and Maybelline Keep Up the Flame for the gradient, and the blue dot is OPI Unfor-greta-bly Blue. SV is the topcoat. I think I

I did this manicure on Friday, and it hasn't worn well -- lots of tip-wear, and some other assorted chips. On the other hand, this morning I went to the DMV to renew a car registration for a friend, and the DMV lady went on about how cute my nails were and seemed agog that I had done them myself. It totally made my day. I bet she doesn't hear "you totally made my day!" that often at the DMV, so it was good for both of us.

Also! I found a really cool website for style stuff through another blogger, iHeartPrettyPolish: Copious. She found a great Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe dupe: here. It's by Hot Mess, and called "Across the Trailer Park". I joined up with Copious, and I'll put a link for anyone else interested in joining here. They offer $10 credit for signing up, so the polish will be free! (Well, $0.60 in fees, but it's got free shipping. I'm all about this!) I'll post again with pictures when it comes and I can show it off.