Friday 19 December 2014

12DOC: Ugly Sweater Nails

Hey y'all!

Happy Friday!  We've had a lovely past couple of days, as some heavy rains brought a bit warmer weather and I was actually able to leave the house in flats and no jacket!  Extraordinary!  I don't expect it to last, but I definitely enjoyed it while I could.  It's that time of the year when people pull out their Christmas sweaters (jumpers) and even go to parties dedicated to wearing the ugliest you can find.  In this spirit, today's prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas challenge is Ugly Sweater Nails, and I had to dig out my flocking powder to create some for you!

Ugly sweater nail art created with flocking powder, stamping, rhinestones, and glitter.

Because this was a stamped look, I ended up with 6 polishes to create my ugly sweater nail art.

L-R: Konad White and Black, China Glaze White on White, MoYou Nails Red, Barry M Key Lime and Watermelon
I created a total of three different nail designs for this look, and I know you'll want some macros, yeah?  Click on any of these pics to enlarge.

Ugly sweater nail art created with flocking powder, stamping, and rhinestones. Ugly sweater nail art created with flocking powder, stamping, rhinestones, and glitter. Ugly sweater nail art created with flocking powder, sharkstooth stamping, and rhinestones.

Essentially, I started with two coats of Key Lime on my index and middle fingers, two coats of Red on my thumb and ring fingers, and two coats of White on White on my pinky.  While the second coat of each color was still wet, I pressed it into the corresponding flocking powder color, waited for it to set, and then brushed off the excess.  My red nails are stamped with MoYou Fashionista 03 in White, and my pinky is stamped with MoYou Fashionista 09 in Black.  My index and middle fingers are stamped from QA57 in White, Watermelon, and Black (striped across the same image).

Ugly sweater nail art created with flocking powder, stamping, rhinestones, and glitter.

When I was finished stamping, I didn't think the overall look was quite tacky enough to win me any prizes at an ugly sweater party, so I did what any crafter with no self-respect would do - add bling!  I had some green holo Christmas tree glitters that I cut down to size and topped with red rhinestones to make holly on my green nails, added chartreuse rhinestones to my red nails, and then made a wreath over the black and white nail with a clear flower rhinestone and green square rhinestones across the cuticle, and finished it off with a third chartreuse rhinestone (because I only had 3 of this odd color gem and figured I might as well use them all). 

Ugly sweater nail art created with flocking powder, stamping, rhinestones, and glitter.

It's entirely possible that these are my favorite nails of this challenge.  They're totally tacky, but I think they're adorably hideous and I hated having to take them off, but after just one night the stamping started flaking off (because of course you can't topcoat over flocking powder or you'll lose the texture) and I knew the party was over.  C'est la vie.  To see more Ugly Sweater Nail looks, be sure to check out the inlinkz down below!




I hope you all have a safe "last weekend before Christmas" weekend, and I will see you on Sunday!