#XMASNORULES: Santa

I can't believe this is the last day of our little #XMASNORULES challenge. I had so much fun with all the different mani's and enjoyed seeing all of yours. The theme for this last day is, of course, Santa. I had so many ideas, all of them way to hard for me to do, so I opted for a relatively easy, but fun many.

I painted all my nails red, except my ringfinger and added a nice layer of snow and some snowflakes. On my ringfinger, I started with a green base and added Santa himself :D
I really like how he turned out. His eyes are a little bigger than I wanted, but that gives him kind of a hippy look, or am I the only one who sees the John Lennon glasses?

This might be my favorite of all my nail art attempts, it's just so fun and festive and I love my little Santa. I had an absolute blast and can't wait for next years challenge!

What was your favorite #XMASNORULES mani?

Happy Holidays!
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#XMASNORULES: Candy Canes and Gifts

I'm doing a little catch up today. I've been so busy, I didn't have time to create even the simplest art for our challenge, so I decided to do 2 in 1 today. Candy Canes and Gifts... what a great combination!

I tried an intricate design at first, but after bumping my nails, messing up because of shaking hands and just a complete lack of skill, I gave up and just stayed in my comfort zone: fun, colorful and simple by alternating the canes and gifts.

I love candy canes, I always have the pepermint ones in my Christmas tree and no matter how many I hang, they all somehow dissapear before New Years Eve... I think my cats eat them.

What's at the top of your Christmas Wishlist this year?

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#XMASNORULES: Elves

Today's XMASNORULES theme is a fun one: elves!
I had so many ideas, but decided to keep it simple. When I saw this design on Youtube, I was sold! It was just so fun and colorful. I saw this design quite a few times, but I watched TotallyCoolNails video.

I think this turned out really well! What a relieve, after my previous disaster with nail art.

Are you joining our #XMASNORULES Christmas Mani Challenge?

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#XMASNORULES: Holiday Movie

One of my favorite things to do during my Christmas holiday is snuggle on my couch and watch a Holiday Movie. They always make me feel so warm and cosy. But what were we thinking making Holiday Movies a theme for this challenge? Seriously, I had a great idea for today's theme and was really excited, untill I got started and saw what it actually looked like on my nails... I couldn't stop laughing and immediately took a picture to send to a friend. She tried not to laugh and tell me it wasn't all that bad, but even she couldn't hold in a chuckle...

After this big fiasco, I tried again, unfortunately with the same result. But I have to admit, I kinda like both my attempts. Not because they are gorgeous mani's, because trust me, they're not, but because I had such fun in the process.

So, instead of coming up with another idea, one that I could actually pull off, I decided to be a good sport and make you laugh by showing you my 2 Holiday Movies nail art gone wrong attempts!

The first movie is not really a Holiday Movie, but it is for me. I only watch this movie around the holidays and I absolutely love it! Bonus points for those of you who can guess the movie by looking at the following big fat fail!

You give up? I know, it's terrible, but still, I like it. I did my best and I have to start somewhere. I should have know I wouldn't be able to pull it off, I am the worst at drawing on paper, let alone on a tiny nail! But this is supposed to be the Corpse Bride.

After this fail, I decided to make my challenge a bit easier and try my hand at a character of an actual Holiday Movie. This is a black and white figure, so I thought this would be easy enough.... wrong! I managed to mess this one up too. But it is a little better than my bride I think.

Any idea which movie I was going for? If you guessed The nightmare before Christmas, you are totally right! Looking at the picture below, I thought it was going to be easy as pie, black, white, 2 eyes, 2 triangles for a nose and a mouth. Can't be all that hard, right? Goes to show I totally overestimated my nail art skills...

I hope you had a good chuckle, I know I did! Even though the result leaves something (well, a lot actually) to be desired, I still love both of these. Let's just hope that I get better with time and I can show you something nice next year!

What's your favorite Holiday Movie?

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#XMASNORULES: Gingerbread Man

I'm loving this challenge so much, everybody is creating so many gorgeous mani's and I'm really getting inspired to try even more nail art!
Today's theme was a struggle for me though, I had no idea what to do with Gingerbread man... I watched a lot of tutorials on youtube and googled my heart out, but I didn't find anything that I really liked AND was able to recreate. So finally, I just gave up and chose a very simple art.

It's just the Gingerbread man "suit". Frosting on the bottom and 2 little buttons on his belly. I don't like how this turned out at all! I really think I should have kept the frosting part a little smaller and the buttons... don't get me started!

Even the pictures are really bad, because my home made light box was demolished by my cat. Apparently it did something bad to Dinkie in the dark, because she got so mad at the poor little light box and literally tore it to shreds... No fixing that and I am now on the hunt for a proper light box. Suggestions are more than welcome!

Anyway, I managed to get a few pictures so I have something to show you.

I used China Glaze Street Chic for my base color, I had to, it's the only brown polish I own...
The white frosting is a striper, as is the red line.
The buttons are made with China Glaze Four leaf Clover and Phat Santa.

Let's quickly forget about today's theme and move on to the next one: Christmas Tree.
I should be able to get someting nice on my nails for that one!

Did you find Gingerbread an easy theme?

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#XMASNORULES: Christmas Lights

Lucky for me this is a No Rules Christmas Challenge, because I totally got my dates mixed up...
I thought today was the Christmas Lights day, turns out it was yesterday. Oh well, It's probably still December 2nd in some part of the world.

I love Christmas lights, they are so cheerful and festive. I always decorate my Christmas tree with a lot of lights and have candles burning everywhere. Usually I tend to have just white lights, but for this nail art, I opted for the colored ones, because that just makes my mani more fun and festive.

I really liked how these turned out. This is by no means an original design, I have seen it all over Youtube and on several blogs, but I loved the idea and decided to give them a try. After seeing this on my nails, I didn't think they were quite festive enough, so I added a bit of sparkle. Normally I think sparkle makes everything better, but in this case I don't know. I like them with and without the sparkle.

I used quite a lot of polishes for this mani and I also used a little brush to get the bulbs on my nails. I found it was fun and easy to do, so even if you're nail art challenged like me, you should be able to pull this of.

Four leaf clover, striper, Happy go lucky, 3 stripers, Golden Enchantment

What do you think? Do you prefer them with or without the sparkle?

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#XMASNORULES: Snow

This is the second day in the #XMASNORULES challenge and the theme is Snow. I love snow! Especially when I'm inside, warm and toasty and there's no need to go outside, unless I just want to take a walk through the snow. Unfortunately, I usually have to make my way to work and somehow it seems my little country just isn't equipt for snow, because after a good snow fall, all traffic is just jammed and it takes me 3 hours to get to work instead of the normal 45 min.

But other than that, snow is one of the most beautifull things mother nature provides. I always feel so calm and serene when I'm walking through a winter wonderland. I just can't get enough.

For my nail art, I decided to keep it simple, as past experience has taught me I'm not the best at art. I painted my nails blue, added snow flakes and a dusting of holo glitter, because, let's be real, glitter makes every mani better! The result is very simple, but I like it.

For this nice, easy mani I used 2 polishes and a nail art striper.

Butler Please, striper, Fairy Dust

What's your favorite thing about snow?
Do you get a lot of white snow where you live, or is it mainly slush like we tend to get?

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#XMASNORULES: Red and Green

Today is the first day of the #XMASNORULES Christmas Mani Challenge and we start this month off with Red and Green. I chose a green that I always gravitate towards around Christmas. It's just so pretty and sparkly, Color Club Holiday Splendor.

For my red, I chose a true Christmas red, China Glaze Phat Santa. It's a red cream and I use it a lot in holiday mani's (and other mani's, because let's be honest, I just love this polish).

Because I love both polishes so much, I didn't want to do too much to them, I just want them to shine together, so I opted for a simple French tip. I think this is the second time ever I tried my hand at a French tip and it is nowhere near perfect, so be gentle :D

I love both these polishes and I love them paired together. They just scream Christmas to me.
I can't wait to see all the other #XMASNORULES mani's, I'm so excited about this challenge!

What is your favorite holiday polish?

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