Happy Monday! I hope the shopping was good for you guys this weekend. For the last Mani Monday before the Christmas madness starts next week and leading up to the holiday, the theme we went with for #CBBxManiMonday was leaves... and I kind of cheated. Looking around outside yesterday and trying to find inspiration, I was struck by the fact that all of the trees around me are completely bare of leaves. I've always loved the craggy beauty of leafless trees and I figured... well, it sort of fits the leaves theme!

For a closer look and to see how I got this mani, keep reading!

Not too long ago, I picked up Color Club Halo Hues in Blue Heaven specifically with cold winter mani's in mind and for this one I felt like it really fit. I started with two coats as my base. Next, I wanted to add a little bit more texture behind the trees so I reached for the XL-Merry Christmas 01 stamping plate and used the dotted snowy image in the top row with BornPrettyStore White Stamping Polish. Next, I reached for the Maniology (formerly Bundle Monster) BM-XL17 stamping plate and used the dotted tree image in the bottom row to stamp the image using BornPrettyStore Black Stamping Polish. I tried to shift the image as best I could on my nails so that it wouldn't just look like the same design repeating on all of my nails and even used the image on only half of my pinkie nail, and I think that it worked quite well to make each nail slightly unique. Finally, I went in with a dotting tool and white stamping polish to add the snowy ground at the tips and more pronounced white dots for abstract snowflakes over the nail, particularly where the stamped image had the black dots, since I didn't want those in my mani. I finished with a generous coat of Seche Vive Top Coat and voila! 

Honestly, I feel like this is almost jumping the gun on the holiday nail art that's going to dominate the next month... but it's so wintery here already that I just couldn't find any lingering fall inspiration. And "No Leaves" sort of lingers in the Leaves theme, right? Keep an eye out for holiday nail art starting this Friday here on the blog and continuing every couple of days until I've filled up 12 Nails Of Christmas leading up to Christmas Eve!

Don't forget to head over to Cosmetic Proof, Tea & Nail Polish, and See The World In PINK to check out their takes on the leaves theme this week for #CBBxManiMonday!

Thanks for reading!