Tannenbaum

I really love the idea of holiday manis, so I've done a few. I'll just jump right in with the first one, which I did last week.

Sinful Show Me The Way. I've seen this one swatched before, and I really like it, but it looks a little swampy on me. At first, I thought ugh, too yellow, but it kinda grew on me, except for the application. I swear, I haven't been able to paint on a single Sinful color that didn't bubble on me (with the possible exception of the glitter topcoat-types). I think this is two (sloppy) coats.
Anyway, I liked it for a day, despite the bubbles. I really wanted to try Nihrida's decoupage technique though, and I just happened to find the perfect napkins to go over this polish, so I plunged right into it.

Here is Show Me The Way with a paper napkin over it. I really liked the effect, and my husband said the dots looked like water droplets. Cool! :D (I was a bit worried that they would look like a weird nail disease, especially over SMTW! ;P)

Here is the napkin I used. I really like these napkins, because there are several options for a design. Just like Nihrida showed in her video tutorial, I pulled the layers apart so there was only the top layer, then cut out the areas I wanted to use this time. Since the polish was a day old, I used topcoat to stick it to my nails. Then, I used more topcoat to "melt" the paper and make it all shiny.
Learnings for next time:

• Use a lighter color for maximum impact. I liked this OK, but it was a little too subtle.
• Cut more carefully for less clean-up, i.e. rounded edges at the cuticle!
• Start with the good/thick topcoat to save layers. I think I used 3 coats of a cheap topcoat and it was still rough. Essie Trillionails saved the day with one coat on top of that.
• This is a great use for that crappy Dollar Tree "Quick Dry" topcoat that never actually dries - I used it underneath the napkin to stick it down. Worked great!
• Try a glitter topcoat - it might make some cool effects.

Overall, it was fun, relatively easy, and I will be doing it again sometime.

Thanks for reading!