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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at CMU chapter.

Hey, girls!

Why not bring some Tartan pride home for the holidays? This look is inspired by a design by MrCandiipants, I just changed some colors and line placement to fit it all in cleanly. 

What you’ll need:

– A base color: I used Maybelline Color Show in “Canary Cool”

– Two reds, one lighter than the other: I used Revlon’s “Revlon Red,” Sephora by O.P.I. in “Personal Shopper”

– An accent color: Essie in “Going Incognito” (the green makes it look more festive for the holidays!)

– Black: I used Sinful Color’s black striper polish for the design.

– A thin brush for the stripes

How to do it:

1) Start with your base color. It’s okay if it’s a little sheer, as this color will just peek through the rest of the design.

2) Take the lighter red and paint a cross in the center of each nail, using a very thin layer of polish. I just used the brush inside the bottle, and to make the lines straight, I used the same method as last time: keep the brush still, and rotate your nail underneath it. For horizontal lines, I go from each side into the center to make sure both sides are even.

3) Take your thin brush, and using the same bright red, paint thin lines alonside the larger ones, leaving a substantial gap between the two lines. You’ll want to go near the edges but not all the way.

4) Now you’ll want to use your dark red and fill in the small square where the big plus sign meets in the center of the nail. This gives these stripes an “overlapped” look. Then, outline the big plus signs with black, keeping the lines as thin as you can. Remember to rotate your nail, not the brush, to keep your lines straight!

5) Clean your thin brush and get out the accent color. Paint thin lines around each side of the nail: the vertical lines should go between the black and thin red lines, and the horizontal lines should go outside the thin red lines. Then, take your black again and paint thin horizontal lines between the black and thin red lines. See how I did it below if you’re confused!

Don’t worry if your polish is looking a little bumpy. The top coat will make everything look smooth:

I hope you enjoy playing around with this design. Happy holidays!

Colleen is a Creative Writing and Professional Writing double major at Carnegie Mellon University, and will be graduating in May 2014. She is currently the Director of Social Media for Her Campus CMU, and partakes in a handful of other organizations on campus. When she's not writing, she's probably reading or spending time with her residents as an RA in a freshman dorm.