Sandy Claws

One of the many things I love about The Nightmare Before Christmas...it works for Halloween and Christmas nails. :)  This is a darker Christmas look with the red and black, but the snowflakes help cheer it up a bit.

In addition to nail art, I also like to do mail art.  For those of you lucky enough to be on my Christmas card list, you might notice the Jack Skellington in this mani is the same one I drew on my envelopes last year.

My nails are shorter now because I just broke one a few days ago. :(  If I had longer nails, I could have painted more of Jack's beard, but I still like how this turned out on short nails.

 Polish Used:

• Wet n Wild - Red Red
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White On
• Wet n Wild - Black Crème
• Bundle Monster Stamping Lacquer - Angelic White
• Base and top coats

Other Supplies:

• Nail art brush
• Nail striping tape
• Bundle Monster stamping plate - BM-H01 (snowflake)
• Rubber stamper

For the striped nails, I used nail striping tape, but if you have a good striping brush and a steady hand, you can do that too.  I just like the uniform lines that can be created with tape.  To create this look:

1. Apply the base colors - middle in white, the rest in red.
   
2. Using a fine detailing nail art brush, paint Jack's head and hat brim details in black polish on the middle finger. 
   
3. Paint his Santa hat in red. 
   
4. Add some black outlining and details to the hat.
   
5. Working one nail at a time, apply striping tape to a red nail to create vertical lines.  The space between the tape should be as thick as the tape so the lines will be even.  Paint over the tape in black polish, then remove the tape.  Repeat this process on all the red nails.
   
6. Use white stamping polish to stamp snowflakes (BM-H01) on all the striped nails.
   

This design also looks nice without the stamping if you don't have any available.