Glitter fade nails

You Need...

Peach base coat, I used a standard french manicure colour.
Top coat (Sally Hansen top coat for french manicures is the best, you can get it in boots)
Gold and green glitter, this doesn't have to be cosmetic glitter, as long as it's fine it doesn't matter (mine is craft glitter form the pound shop)
Fine glitter top coat
A fan brush

1) Base coat all nails in the peach colour

2) When they are dry one nail at a time (important or they will dry out) put a second coat of the peach over half your nail

3) Dip the fan brush into the gold glitter and apply it to the nail, you want the tip to be really concentrated and obviously it to fade out as you go down the nail. 

4) Very lightly dust a little bit of green over the top

5) Fine glitter top coat the entire nail when the glitter has dried

6) Repeat for all nails

7) Top coat all nails

It's a good idea to do this over a bit of paper or a plate or the glitter will go everywhere. Removing glitter nail varnish is really hard when you just use regular cotton wool and nail varnish remover, a better way is to soak the bit of cotton wool in remover, then put it over your nail and wrap it tightly in tin foil (this means it doesn't dry out), and leave it for a few minutes. When you take it off the glitter all comes off in one :) 

Christmas Lights Nails

These didn't really look as good as I hoped they would :(
Nina - "well they look ridiculous" .. family love

You Need: Pearl colour, Black, Red, Blue, Green, Silver, Fine glitter top coat, Normal top coat. Fine brush, Dotting tool.

1) Base coat with pearl colour.

2) Using a fine brush paint a black line across all your nails for the wire.

3) At regular intervals paint a small black rectangle on the line.

4) For the plug paint a semi circle on your little finger then extend the straight edge, paint 2 small lines in the centre of the plug. 

5) Using a dotting tool to dot by the rectangle then drag it out to create a tear drop shape, alternate the colours and do this for each light.

6) Highlight each light with silver.

7) Glitter top coat below the wire on your first 4 nails (my idea was that this would show the light being given by the fairy lights but it didn't really work, and you can't really see it in the picture... brighter glitter would probably look better)

8) Normal top coat all nails.

Christmas Character Nails

Santa, Penguin, Rudolph, Snow Man, Gingerbread Man

These are copied from a design I found on google.

You Need: Nude, White, Black, Red, Dark Brown, Light Brown, Orange, Yellow, Fine brush, Dotting tool.

Santa 

1) Base coat nude

2) Paint the top third of your nail in red

3) Using a dotting tool pain a series of connected white dots for the fur on the hat

4) Paint the moustache by dotting and then dragging it out to the side of your nail

5) Dot on eyes in black

6) Dot on white highlight in eyes 

7) Top coat

Penguin

1) Base coat white

2) Using a fine brush paint an 'm' shape on the top third of your nail, fill with black

3) Dot on the eyes, and highlight with a white dot

4) Paint a yellow 'v' for the beak

5) Top coat

Rudolph 

1) Base coat dark brown

2) Paint a semi-circle on the bottom half of the nail

3) Paint a red circle for the nose

4) Dot on the eyes

5) Highlight the eyes with white dots, and nose with a dash on the top corner

6) Top coat

Snow Man

1) Base coat white

2) Paint the top quarter of the nail in black, for the hat

3) Paint 2 large dots for the eyes

4) Paint  smaller dots for the smile 

5) Using a fine brush paint a red line for the trim of the hat

6) Using another fine brush paint a triangle for the carrot 

7) Paint smaller white dots to highlight the eyes

8) Top Coat

Ginger Bread Man

1) Base coat in nude

2) Paint a large brown circle on the top third of you nail

3) Paint two diagonal lines for the arms and a vertical line for the body

4) Use a dotting tool to paint the 2 red buttons

5) Use a dotting tool to paint the eyes, and highlight with 2 smaller white dots

6) Use a fine brush to paint cuffs on the arms

7) Top Coat.

Christmas Pudding Nails

For Sarah :)

You Need: dark brown, fine glitter top coat, white, dark green, red, top coat, dotting tool, medium brush and a fine brush.

1) Base coat with dark brown.
2) Top coat with fine glitter.
3) When they are dry paint the white topping on the puddings using a medium thick brush, start by painting the two edges then work your way to the middle of the nail.
4) Paint the holly leaves right on the base of the nail using the finest brush you have.
5) Using a dotting tool paint 2 red dots on the leaves for the berries.
6) Top coat.

Nancy's Christmas Holly Nails

You Need: Pearl base coat, Emerald green, Shiny red, Fine glitter top coat, Normal top coat.

1) Base coat with the pearl colour

2) Using a pen dot on 3 red dots for the berries

3) When they are dry again using a pen draw on the leaves 

4) Glitter top coat

5) Normal top coat 

Nancy = I give my 100% approval :)

Snowflake Christmas Nails.

You Need: midnight blue nail polish, silver nail polish, topcoat.

1) Base coat with the midnight blue colour

2) When they are dry using either a nail art brush or pen draw out a star on your nail, add the little lines to each spike to make them look like snowflakes

4) Top coat

You can use glitter top coat on these... I not sure what I prefer, the glitter as it kind of distracts from the snowflakes, ahhh!

With glitter....

Patterned Christmas Nails

You Need: Red nail varnish, A Gel Pen, Top coat.

1) Base coat red.

2) Using a gel pen draw on the pattern, using a pen gives more control than a thin brush. I worked from the top of the nail down and kind of made the patterns up as I went along :)

3) Top Coat.

You'll need a really steady hand to paint/draw this on your wrong hand due to the fine details, it may take a few tries! 

Gel pens are a really easy and good technique to use for nail art, they are so simple to control and everyone has at least one gel pen at home. Be careful before applying top coat though as it can smudge really easily. Leave a bit extra time for it to dry :) 

Addition: 28th March 2013 - entering this for moneysupermarket.com smart nail art competition, gel pens over expensive pen tools is a definite win. 

Steel Ball Heart Nails

You Need: Base Coat of your choice, Nail Constellation (http://www.muastore.co.uk/index.php/nail-constellation) or generic nail art balls, top coat.

1) Base coat nails
2) While they are still wet sprinkle balls over your nail and press them into the nail varnish.
3) Using something pointy (pen, tweezers etc..) shape the balls into what ever shape you're trying to achieve.
4) Reapply your base colour in the shape
4) Apply top coat.
5) Half an hour later apply another coat.

These nails take quite a while to set due to the balls, when you have a shape cut out they also only last a few days as it's easy to chip the balls, full nails do last longer though :)

Newspaper Nails.

You Need: Pale Base Coat (eg. pink, grey, white), 10 strips of newspaper, little bit of vodka, top coat.

1) Paint your base coat, wait until it's 100% dry
2) Dip your nail in vodka for 5-10 seconds
3) Press newspaper strip onto nail, and hold firmly in place for 30 seconds
4) Peel newspaper away from nail
5) Top coat

Barbie Nails

Colours: Pale Pink, Hot Pink, Glitter Top Coat, Normal Top Coat.

1) Base coat pale pink.
2) Using a gel pen write out the Barbie logo (gel pens are amazing as you trace out what you want to paint and can wipe it off if you make a mistake).
3) Using the pen line as a stencil use a thin brush/sharp pencil to paint over it.
4) Glitter top coat.
5) Normal top coat.

Christmas Reindeer Nails.

Colours: White, Brown, Red, Glitter top coat, Normal top coat.

1) White base coat.
2) When the white is fully dry paint a brown semi circle on the tips, and 2 ears on the edges (if you don't have brown you can mix red + green with a paint brush and make one)
3) Paint a small white dot for eyes.
4) While the dots are drying using a thin brush or sharp pencil draw on the antlers, and then dot the black in the centre of the eyes.
5) Use the tip of a normal nail varnish brush to paint small semi circles for the nose (3 black,  red).
6) Paint red dots on thumb, and glitter top coat.
7) Top coat all nails.