Sonoma Nail Art: Bon Bons

Friday, December 2, 2011

Gift Wrapping

For today's xmas mani, I am featuring gift wrap and a fun Gonzo popping out of a Christmas present. I really wanted to continue doing the Muppets characters, so you will see a few of them popping up here and there. :)

I used both stamping and freehand to make this manicure. I really like how Gonzo turned out, with his little bow tie and three fingers on each hand. LOL

The base color for this manicure is OPI Rumple's Wiggin' from the Shrek collection. My local CVS has the Shrek polishes for some reason. Totally bizarre!

My stamping is not the greatest, and this pattern is kind of temperamental. Let's just pretend that my husband wrapped these presents, and that's why they look all wrinkly. I used a striping brush to do the ribbons on the packages. Then I used acrylic paint to map out the peeled back wrapping paper where Gonzo will pop out.

Here is Gonzo during the painting process. I did not spend as much time on him as I did on my Fozzie manicure, mostly because I was not looking for the perfect level of detail that I wanted in the competition.

I painted the bows on the packages by looking at image of a bow online. I started with a grey base, then added dark grey lowlights, and topped it with silver highlights. The bows were painted with acrylic paint. From here I added topcoat and then it was done!

Polishes used in this manicure: OPI Rumple's Wiggin', Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Urgent Orchid (stamping), and Bon Bons mini silver polish. I used the mini silver for the ribbons on the packages. The stamp I used was from Konad plate m60.

The idea of Gonzo bursting through the gift wrapping came from this set of Muppet stamps issued by the US Postal Service in 2005. These are such awesome stamps! On the back side of the set, there are words from each of the Muppets featured. They are in character and very funny.

See what I mean??

This manicure is part of the 12 Days of Christmas Manis challenge that I am doing with some polish friends. Feel free to join us, and be sure to check out the other manicures from my fellow bloggers.

Amber - http://amberdunson.blogspot.com/

Chilli - http://polishandpoise.blogspot.com/

Jamie - http://www.nailsadored.com

Jen - http://sweettipsnails.blogspot.com/

Pauline - http://omgnoodles.blogspot.com/

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Snowflakes

I am starting a new nail art challenge today with a few of my polish buddies. Feel free to join us if you would like! The thought of creating 24 different xmas manis on top of everything else I am trying to get done this holiday season was a bit too daunting, so we are doing the 12 Days of Christmas Manis! And I may not do them in order or even get them done in 12 days, but that is totally allowed with this challenge. :-)

I do not use stamps a lot, because I really enjoy doing freehand art. But this is on my right hand (meaning I did it with my non-dominant left hand) so I thought it might be prettier to use stamps.

This is a combination of two different in expensive polishes, and it kind of reminds me of OPI's Swimsuit... Nailed It! This combo has large and small blue glitter, which is really fun. :)

I started by stamping with a light blue polish. This is a snowflake image from the Bundle Monster BM14 plate. I tried to place it in different spots on each nail.

Next I used a silver polish with the same stamp. Finally I topped it with white snowflakes. I went through a LOT of Q-Tips with this mani, LOL.

Here are the two polishes I used for the base color: Love and Beauty Blue Glitter and Sinful Colors Ciao Bella. I really like the combination of these two polishes!

I topped the blue glittery base with snowflakes stamped using OPI No Room For The Blues, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri White Out, and a tiny silver polish from Bon Bons.

Here are the different themes we will be trying during the 12 Days of Christmas Manis! Check out the other awesome nail bloggers who are joining in the fun: