12DOC: Freestyle Christmas Tartan Plaid

Hey y'all!

Today is an exciting day for two reasons!  First, it is the final prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas challenge which has consumed this month's blogging activity for me, and the second reason is a fairly big blogging milestone.  This is my 300th post!  Who would've thought when I started this journey just over a year ago that I'd have logged 300 entries into this blog?  It's very bizarre for me.  In any event, today's final prompt for this challenge is Freestyle, leaving it completely open to each artist's interpretation.  I took inspiration from another artist's design for the Red and Green prompt and while my attempt is nowhere near as sophisticated or chic as Natasja's of Love Life Lacquer, here are my Christmas tartan/plaid nails!

12DOC: Presents!

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Happy first day of winter (officially)!  Seems a bit bizarre, given that I've been wearing a uniform of sweatshirts, long pants, and socks for months now, but I'm still a Texas girl at heart and it's bizarre that my flip-flops were retired for the year in October.  Today marks the penultimate prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas nail art challenge!  It's also the final assigned prompt, because Tuesday's prompt will be freestyle and open to all the artists' interpretations.  I find this prompt particularly appropriate though, because it involves something that I still haven't done and need to do quickly - wrapping presents!

12DOC: Ugly Sweater Nails

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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!

12DOC: Silver Bells Glitter Gradient

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Happy Wednesday!  Can you believe that in just ONE WEEK it'll be Christmas Eve?  Insanity!  I am truly sorry if you're still jostling around trying to get preparations made.  Thankfully, I've been able to stay on top of it all and am left with the luxury of enjoying all the decorations and fast-forwarding through the commercials because we only ever watch stuff on the DVR these days.  Speaking of decorations, I showed you some on Monday, and today I've taken the 12DOC Glitter prompt and turned it into decorations as well, sort of.  Here is my silver bells purple glitter gradient look.

12DOC: Christmas Decorations

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Yup, it's Monday, again, and we're now halfway through December.  By now, neighborhoods should be filled with creative and festive light-up displays at dusk, where enterprising homeowners compete with one another for the most Christmas-y lawn display of the street.  This was the inspiration I used to complete today's 12 Days of Christmas prompt: Christmas Decorations.

12DOC: Red and Green Candy Canes

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We are now in the final half of the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge, and today's prompt is Red and Green colors.  I took inspiration from the colorful Christmas candy canes (and two of Barry M's Winter Silk shades) to create this striped design.

12DOC: Tenth Time Lord Leaping!

Hey y'all!

So, on Tuesday I geeked out a little bit with my prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas nail art challenge.  Today, I'm geeking out a considerable amount more, and I'm also trying a new-to-me technique, creating home-made water decals.  Our challenge was to pick one day from the 12 Days of Christmas song and use that as our prompt.  After hemming and hawing for a few hours, I finally decided to give in and go with my gut, and completely twist the challenge to fit my geek needs.  Ergo, I present to you the 10th Doctor (Time Lord), leaping across my nails!

12DOC: Hoth Camo!

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Hold onto your seats for a minute... because my nail art for today's 12 Days of Christmas prompt contains 0% nail charms!  Are you so excited??  I totally am.  Today the Challenge Your Nail Art group is tackling the colors Icy Blue and White, so I decided I wanted to go Tauntaun hunting on Hoth, and was gonna need some camo!

12DOC: Santa!

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Happy Sunday!  We've officially put the first week of December in the bag, and as such, today's prompt for the Challenge Your Nail Art 12 Days of Christmas Challenge should bring a few very familiar faces to you, because today we're doing Santa and/or Elves!  I know you'll be shocked by this, but I have *another* nail charm for this prompt!

12DOC: Snowmen

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Happy Friday!  Can you believe we've already made it through the first week of December, and Christmas is only 3 weeks away?  Sometimes it feels like the first half of the year drags on and takes forever, then as soon as September hits, everything whizzes past!  Marching right along in the 12 Days of Christmas challenge is today's prompt: Snowmen, so I turned once again to that trusty pack of nail charms I bought at Poundland, and added some freehand nail art to flesh out my look.

12DOC: Christmas Trees

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I'm back with the second prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas challenge, and today we're covering Christmas trees!

12DOC: Snowflakes

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Happy 1st of December!  We're on the countdown now to Christmas and New Years, and that means a LOT of seasonal nail art from all of your favorite nail artists.  It seems like we only just finished last month's Challenge Your Nail Art series, and here we are starting a new series today.  For the next 3 weeks, we're going to be visiting the Twelve Days of Christmas, with prompts every other day.  Since this schedule runs roughshod over my usual M-W-F-S posting schedule, I'm going to abandon my normal schedule and hold off swatch posts (with one important exception this weekend), so that I can get all this nail art done and still have time to get my Christmas stuff in gear.  All that said, let's get into this challenge!  Our first prompt is Snowflakes!

Fall-ing for Nail Art: Traditional Thanksgiving

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Happy Thanksgiving!  To my US readers, I hope you're all stuffed to the gills with yummy food and in the company of loved ones.  At the very least, I hope each and everyone one of you can find something for which to be thankful, and that goes for all of you, regardless of your national origin or geographic location.  Today's final prompt in the Fall-ing for Nail Art challenge is Traditional Thanksgiving images, and I bounced back on forth for this prompt for several days, trying to find something that wasn't too cliched or that hasn't been seen a million times already.  I've got a very untraditional take on traditional images, and it was inspired by my shopping trip today where I was really overloaded with all the Christmas decorations and sales going up in November.  It seems to happen earlier and earlier with each passing year, and here in the UK I was actually seeing Christmas sales going up before Halloween!

Fall-ing for Nail Art: Elegant Gold and Purple

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Happy Humpday!  Today's prompt for the Fall-ing for Nail Art challenge brings us to Fall Inspired Colors.  Now, most people tend to think of reds, oranges, yellows, and browns when it comes to fall colors, but I went a different direction to create this look.

Fall-ing for Nail Art: Cinnamon Apples

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I'm back today with another look for the Fall-ing for Nail Art challenge, and this time the prompt is Fall Foods!  I had a good long think about all the ways I could interpret this prompt and finally settled on a combo that creates one of my favorite fragrances of autumn: cinnamon and apples!

Fall-ing for Nail Art: Fall Leaves

Hey y'all!

This week, the Challenge Your Nail Art group is back with another week-long challenge, this time centered around Fall/Autumn and Thanksgiving.  We'll be running daily nail art through Thursday this week, which should lead you all right into Black Friday and money-spending madness as we headroll into the Christmas season.  Today's prompt is Fall Leaves and/or Trees, and I've created this stamped look for you.

Beetlejuice Nail Art CYNA Halloween themed TV or movie inspired

Hey y'all!

Happy Halloween, and happy Friday!  October went by so incredibly fast, I almost cannot believe it!  October 31 is, traditionally, one of my favorite days of the year because I love dressing up and going out and seeing everyone else dressed up and having a good time.  The Halloween season also brings around some of my favorite movies, including the one that inspired me for today's prompt for the Challenge Your Nail Art series, Beetlejuice!  As he says, "It's Showtime!"

Spooky French Tips CYNA Halloween Villains

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Today marks the penultimate prompt for the Challenge Your Nail Art Halloween challenge, and the prompt is actually one that I suggested, so I knew I had to "bring it" with my contribution.  I opted to put a bit of a spin on these classic Halloween monsters by creating them as french tips.  Can you identify all the spooky species?

Jack-O'-Lanterns! CYNA Pumpkin Faces

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I'm back with another Halloweeny nail art courtesy of the Challenge Your Nail Art Halloween linkup.  Today's prompt is the classic Pumpkin Face, so I've created a bevy of handful of wacky jack-o-lanterns for you!

Halloween Jumper Nail Art CYNA Classic Orange & Black

Hey y'all!

Happy Tuesday to you!  You may have picked up a few hints that I've been on vacation the past couple weeks.  Hubby and I returned from a trip back "home" to Austin on Sunday, and we're both still recovering from the trip.  On the plus side, I have a lot of new goodies to show you coming up, and I can't wait to get started playing with them!  Thankfully I've had a few really awesome ladies step forward to give me some guest posts so that I can focus on getting everything sorted while still providing you with some great nail art!  This week, though, I have a whole handful of Halloween-themed looks for you as part of the Challenge Your Nail Art group's October offering, so come back every day this week to see 4 great seasonal looks, and the linkup to all the other participating artists.  Today's prompt is Classic Orange & Black, which I used to create this fun Halloween sweater/jumper look.