Holly Jolly Manicure

This week I decided to try for Holly leaves. I've done them once before, but used a nail art striper brush rather than the Migi Nail Art pens that I used this time. Think I could use a little more practice, but overall, they ended up pretty festive.

I started with two coats of China Glaze "White Out" for the base color. I have a hard time getting this one even, but didn't worry too much about it since the next step was glitter.

Then I layered a coat of China Glaze "Glacier" over the top, for a nice glitter effect. Unfortunately, it didn't quite fill that uneven spot on my middle finger, but I like the overall frosty effect.
I decided to use black to outline the leaves after trying one in just green on my thumb. I did the outlines on each nail - it's a good idea to practice drawing holly leaves on a piece of paper first (just six "smiles" joined together at angles, three on each side).
Then I used the green migi pen to fill in the holly leaves.
For a little interest, I used a Nubar nail art pen to put a gold "ribbon" across the smile line.
And then three red rhinestones for berries in the center of each pair of leaves.
A few coats of top coat, some clean up, and voila! A Holly Jolly Manicure.
Admittedly I need more practice with the holly, but I like these quite a bit. Anyone else wearing holiday nails yet?

Happy Polishing!