40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Christmas + clear jelly stamper

I've been missing in action this week. Sorry about that. I had a pretty big week at work with a number of things I needed to prepare for in the evenings, which meant they old blog got bumped to a lower priority.  The first was a presentation to the entire division that I work in at our end of year Divisional meeting.  Then on Friday I had a job interview for a position I have been acting in for the last 2 years.  So all in all it was a pretty stressful week!

This weeks theme for the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas Challenge is Christmas and luckily I had prepared this mani last week for our work Christmas party, because I pretty much didn't even do nail art this week, I just had nicely polished regular nails.

The base for this mani is Emily de Molly Crystal Crown.  It's almost in the white holo category, but it's probably just the slightest shade of pale grey.  What I love about the shade is the strong gold shimmer that it has, which really seems to neutralise the grayness of the polish. Perfect formula too, this was two thicker coats.

My stamping for this mani was done using a clear jelly stamper and the plate is CSJ01 - Christmas tree plate.  I purchased this plate from Clear Jelly Stamper and had it included with my replacement flower plate.  When I originally purchased my Clear Jelly Stamper, I did it through a group buy with some other Australians. At that time I purchased the original CSJ01 plate with flowers on it, but I was unable to pick up any of the images on it with the jelly stamper.  I contacted CJS and they were fantastic. They said they did have a few plates slip through that weren't etched deeply enough and that they would send me a replacement plate.  I'm pleased to say that the replacement plate is much better, and I will have a mani using that plate soon.

If you are having trouble picking up images with your Clear Jelly Stamper, I find the technique that works for me is roll across the image quickly, rather than pressing straight down, or doing it slowly.

Polish provided for consideration, plates and stamper purchased by me.