Then, cut them into long strips. You don't have to be consistent with the width of each strip - in fact, the differing widths will make the candy cane look more realistic. 

So first up, grab a pretty white and paint it on so it's opaque. I used OPI's Alpine Snow, and needed 2 coats to get it to true colour. 



Next, I scrunched up a ball of clingwrap as tightly as I could. This will be used as your sponging tool. The more nooks and crannies there are on your clingwrap, the more intricate the pattern you get. It was my first time trying out this technique of sponging, but its as simple as using a sponge, really. Just make sure you dab the excess paint off your clingwrap, unless you want a huge drop of paint on your nails...



First, I mixed a light grey using my acrylic paints and clingwraped them onto my nail. For this step, I made sure to do this at random - sometimes, I would dab the grey on in dense clusters, and other times I would spread it out evenly on my nail. This makes it seem more natural. 



Then, I did the same with a darker grey colour to add more depth to the design. Don't worry if your fingers get a little messy along the way - we'll clean that up later. 



Then, using a thin brush, I drew on some fine grey lines using the same shade of grey for the previous step. You can also use the head of a bobby pin as well, if you don't have a brush around. 

When drawing on the grey cracks, let your hand shake a little. This makes the cracks look a little more authentic. 



Then, follow up with black paint to add more cracks. I also found that drawing the cracks on in a generally parallel direction makes them look better. 



Then, dip a concealer brush (preferably one you don't use anymore) into nail polish remover, and remove the paint on your fingers to clean up.

The evil eye motif is a pretty common one, even in nail art, and I've decided to give it a shot for this manicure. My nails are much shorter than they used to be a month or so ago, but I think it's a perfect length for this look. The entire eye is drawn with acrylic paint, and the base colour is OPI;s That's Hula-rious. It's a lovely, muted lime green and I choose it for its high contrast with my own skin colour. I wanted it to really stand out - and stand out it did!

 Changi airport, the dragon playground, and the war memorial represents a global village, preservation of the past, and the importance of diplomacy respectively. For the second row, the HDB, Vanda Miss Joaquim and the bus stands for community, hybridism, and mobility. 

The entire process was relatively long, mostly because I tried my best to mimic the colours I see in the reference pictures. Here's a quick breakdown of the process:



1. Shape your nails and paint a protective layer of base coat (Base Coat Abricot, Dior)

I take my nail art seriously. I plan to take it further soon, so I wanted to start on my namecard. There's been some exciting progress in that sector, so I wanted to share them with you. But first, let me tell you how it began.

I met Fiq while we were queueing up for The Used's concert. She's amazing. She's got a talent for typography and illustration, and I knew I had to own one of her works. You can view her work here. She takes projects, so I ordered an illustration from Fiq. My brief was, well, brief. I knew I wanted something circular, which included 2 of my favourite flowers, a camelia (whose oil works so well on my hair, by the way), and a rose. And off that, Fiq drew this:



You should have seen my face when I saw the final product. It's perfect. She was nothing short of supportive, and the end result was more than I had imagined. 

So for the next step, I knew I wanted to make this illustration into a stamp, so I can use it on my namecard. Fiq referred me to another talented artist: Lini.

Now, Lini specializes in handcarved hard rubber stamps. To view her work, click through here. She gave me a lot of advice on selecting the size of the stamp to that would fit best on my namecards, and I really appreciate how patient she was with me. When everything was settled, she had the stamps done in a week, and mailed to me the next day. Here's the final result: 




Entirely hand carved. Would you just take a moment to soak it all in?