First and foremost, you’ll need to make some sort of game plan (game! Ha!) before you start actually painting. We were going for a variety of looks on each separate nail here, but you can always simplify the process by sticking with one basic theme for all your digits.

Clearly, the Patriots and Giants did all of us nail art fans a huge favor by choosing team uniforms that are pretty much the exact same colors: Red, white, and blue. So for anyone who still has your nail polish left over from any Fourth of July festivities – you’re in luck! To add some differentiation between the opposing teams’ nail art looks, we added some silver into the Patriots’ designs. But you’ll see that soon.

Once you’ve planned out your designs and coordinating finger (we used post it notes to plan which designs fit each nail shape and size), you can start with your base colors. For our Giants hand’s pinky finger, we painted a diagonal red stripe that will later become a striped pattern – so as not to muddy the other colors. The black nail on the Patriots hand is for a “night scene” picture of a field goal.

Colors used:

Red – Maybelline Express Finish in Racy Red
Blue – Essie in Aruba Blue
White – Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in White On
Black – NYC Long Wearing in Black Lace Creme
Silver – Art Club in Steele This Look