Dead the Halls

Today’s look just didn’t want to come together in my head. The prompt was Dead the Halls and I had plenty of ideas that I could paint for it, but nothing really stood out to me. My sticking point was that I had this monster Christmas wreath image I wanted to use, but it didn’t fit in with everything else. In my head, wreaths are to be hung on doors and maybe a banister, but they don’t just fit hanging on the wall. And the idea I wanted to go with was decorating the house with monster portraits. So after way too much time overthinking things, I set the idea of using the wreath aside and focused on my monsters. This ended up taking it out of the range of Christmas and more purely Halloween, but I think it still fit in with the others because of my background.

Maybe. Hopefully.

Monstrous family portrait nail art with a sweet green wallpaper background and reverse stamping decals of framed monster strewn with cobwebs. — Dead the Halls

Nail art products used

Base Polish:: Maniology’s “Lacewing““
Stamping Polishes:: Maniology’s “Headliner” in the background and “Acorn“
Reverse Stamping Polishes:: Essie’s “Penny Talk“, L’Oreal’s “A la Meringue“, Maniology’s “Caladium“, Night Owl Lacquer’s “It Mustard Been Love“, and Sinful Colors’ “Maroon Fine“
Freehand Painting:: Acrylic paint in a cream shade to make the spider webs.
Stamping Plates:: Esmaltes da Molly “EDMXL02“ (floral background pattern); Maniology “M242“ (hilly monster portrait); Maniology “MXM063“ (monster portrait, witch portrait, spider portrait); UberChic Beauty mini “Cozy at Home“ (bed, “home sweet home”)

Items in italics are debuting on the blog for the first time.

I really loved the background for this nail art. I threw it together on a whim intending it for a different mani that I had to give up on due to time constraints. And I really could have posted it on its own because it’s quite pretty and a lot of people would prefer it over the nail art I usually do because it’s more neutral. Sorry, suckers, but I am doing this hobby for me. 😈

So I eventually did use it with the monsters and they are adorable. I wanted it to look like a family because this was “home”. I kept the stamping decals cohesive by making all the frames copper and filling everything with the same four colors (green monster skin for the win, although…who matches their pillowcases to their face?). I do wish I’d spent more time freehanding the cobwebs, but I had run out of time and needed everything to be dry enough so I could take photos. So I rushed it a little and it’s fine.

I do want to push myself more in the freehand department this year. Looking back I’ve only been throwing in a little freehand here and there when I had to and I can certainly do more than that.