CNTCWC D6: Christmas Food

Hey y'all!

Christmas week is finally here, and last night, we finally got a bit of snow that stuck around til morning.  Of course it has all melted now by the afternoon, but it's something, right?  Today's theme in the CNTCWC is Christmas Food, which has already been on my mind as we get preparations done for Christmas day. I toyed with several ideas for what constituted Christmas food, but the one that *always* makes me think Christmas and nothing else is gingerbread houses, so that was the inspiration for today's manicure.

I knew I'd never be able to get the detail on such a small space using my available tools to create a full gingerbread house on a nail, so I wanted to grab aspects thereof and tried to work those in.

I started with a base color of elf Chocolate, and then sponged on Barry M Mushroom and OPI My Vampire is Buff, alternating, until I got what felt like a gingerbread-y color.  On all but my ring finger, I then added on swags of "icing" using a Kiss White striper, and then added candy dots using various colors which I'll list below.

For the accent nail, I created a door using the same white striper, and then dotted on more candy colors as though they had been pushed into the icing to frame the door.

I then added two large white dots on either side of the door and used a toothpick to stipple in red lacquer to resemble peppermint candies.  For the wreath, I outlined the shape first in white, then went over that in green lacquer with a dotting tool.  I added red microbeads to resemble holly berries, and added three shaped red rhinestones to resemble a bow on top.

When I was finished, I realized the brown didn't much resemble gingerbread, and made a fatal mistake of trying to dot on some dark spots (typically spices in the gingerbread) but in retrospect I realize I probably couldn't have ever gotten those small enough to look like spices and instead they just kind of look like chocolate chip cookies instead of gingerbread.  Live and learn, live and learn. 

Colors Used:

elf Chocolate

OPI My Vampire is Buff

Barry M Mushroom

Kiss striper White

NYC Spring Street

Rimmel Double Decker Red

Sephora by OPI Slushied

elf Royal Purple

Rimmel Block Your Green

elf Yellow

And now for something completely different:

As I come to the end of this post, I feel like I want to say something, and ask for a bit of support from my readers.  Last night I got a bit of bad news that I'm still a bit shaken about; my mom's dog (formerly my dog but my mom fell in love with him and pleaded to be able to keep him) was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, so he's starting medication to hopefully alleviate his symptoms and extend his life.  He's already a little old man at 11 years old, but I always figured he would live to see at least 15 or so, and the idea that his heart is failing him just breaks mine.  He's always been a very sweet, very playful, very friendly little dog, if a bit annoying and face-licky (it's just how he shows his love).

If you're the sort of person who believes in the power of prayer or warm wishes, please take a moment to send some love to a little dog in the States who is having a rough time of it right now, and also to my mom, who is not dealing well with this revelation.  Though I know there aren't many of you, a good number of you know me personally and also know Chibi and my mom.  Our family could definitely use a little bit of faith.and love.  Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but this little toot is on my mind and it all just kind of fell out of my fingertips.