Nightmare Before Christmas

I was really looking forward to doing this challenge in the 12 Days of Christmas Manis challenge. I love this movie so much, and it is awesome that I get to do this theme twice a year (for Halloween AND Christmas)!

It's Jack Skellington in his Santa Claus (Claws) suit, with Oogie Boogie on my middle finger. Oogie has his own little holiday hat on. 

This is the image I used as the model for my manicure. I found this image online here. 

I started with a base of OPI Brand New Skates. This is three coats, and there is still visible nail line, but when I look at my nails in less harsh light (not directly under a lamp like these photos) the nail line is much less prominent. Brand New Skates was part of OPI's Holiday In Toyland line. It came out in 2008, but oddly enough, my local drugstore has it now. 

Here's Jack before I topcoated. I used acrylic paints to do the artwork on these nails. See my FAQ section to learn more about the tools I use for my nail art. 

Oogie Boogie was super fun to paint. I mixed yellow acrylic paint into my green paint to give him a little bit of a sickly glow. I thought about giving him a top coat of Ghoulish Glow glow in the dark polish, but that kind of mutes the nail art. 

On my right hand I painted some holly leaves and berries. It was a simple bit of nail art that ties the two hands together, and wasn't too difficult to do with my non-dominant hand. 

This is part of the 12 Days of Christmas Manis challenge. Feel free to join in if you'd like! The rules are very loose, you can do as little or as much as you'd like, and in any order you want. 

Here are some other nail bloggers who are doing this challenge. Check them out for great holiday nail art!

Amber - http://amberdunson.blogspot.com/

Chilli - http://polishandpoise.blogspot.com/

Jamie - http://www.nailsadored.com

Jen - http://sweettipsnails.blogspot.com/

Pauline - http://omgnoodles.blogspot.com/

Gift Wrapping

For today's xmas mani, I am featuring gift wrap and a fun Gonzo popping out of a Christmas present. I really wanted to continue doing the Muppets characters, so you will see a few of them popping up here and there. :)

I used both stamping and freehand to make this manicure. I really like how Gonzo turned out, with his little bow tie and three fingers on each hand. LOL

The base color for this manicure is OPI Rumple's Wiggin' from the Shrek collection. My local CVS has the Shrek polishes for some reason. Totally bizarre! 

My stamping is not the greatest, and this pattern is kind of temperamental. Let's just pretend that my husband wrapped these presents, and that's why they look all wrinkly. I used a striping brush to do the ribbons on the packages. Then I used acrylic paint to map out the peeled back wrapping paper where Gonzo will pop out.

Here is Gonzo during the painting process. I did not spend as much time on him as I did on my Fozzie manicure, mostly because I was not looking for the perfect level of detail that I wanted in the competition. 

I painted the bows on the packages by looking at image of a bow online. I started with a grey base, then added dark grey lowlights, and topped it with silver highlights. The bows were painted with acrylic paint. From here I added topcoat and then it was done!

Polishes used in this manicure: OPI Rumple's Wiggin', Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Urgent Orchid (stamping), and Bon Bons mini silver polish. I used the mini silver for the ribbons on the packages. The stamp I used was from  Konad plate m60.

The idea of Gonzo bursting through the gift wrapping came from this set of Muppet stamps issued by the US Postal Service in 2005. These are such awesome stamps! On the back side of the set, there are words from each of the Muppets featured. They are in character and very funny. 

See what I mean??

This manicure is part of the 12 Days of Christmas Manis challenge that I am doing with some polish friends. Feel free to join us, and be sure to check out the other manicures from my fellow bloggers. 

Amber - http://amberdunson.blogspot.com/

Chilli - http://polishandpoise.blogspot.com/

Jamie - http://www.nailsadored.com

Jen - http://sweettipsnails.blogspot.com/

Pauline - http://omgnoodles.blogspot.com/

Snowflakes

I am starting a new nail art challenge today with a few of my polish buddies. Feel free to join us if you would like! The thought of creating 24 different xmas manis on top of everything else I am trying to get done this holiday season was a bit too daunting, so we are doing the 12 Days of Christmas Manis! And I may not do them in order or even get them done in 12 days, but that is totally allowed with this challenge. :-)

I do not use stamps a lot, because I really enjoy doing freehand art. But this is on my right hand (meaning I did it with my non-dominant left hand) so I thought it might be prettier to use stamps. 

This is a combination of two different in expensive polishes, and it kind of reminds me of OPI's Swimsuit... Nailed It! This combo has large and small blue glitter, which is really fun. :)

I started by stamping with a light blue polish. This is a snowflake image from the Bundle Monster BM14 plate. I tried to place it in different spots on each nail. 

Next I used a silver polish with the same stamp. Finally I topped it with white snowflakes. I went through a LOT of Q-Tips with this mani, LOL. 

Here are the two polishes I used for the base color: Love and Beauty Blue Glitter and Sinful Colors Ciao Bella. I really like the combination of these two polishes!

I topped the blue glittery base with snowflakes stamped using OPI No Room For The Blues, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri White Out, and a tiny silver polish from Bon Bons. 

Here are the different themes we will be trying during the 12 Days of Christmas Manis! Check out the other awesome nail bloggers who are joining in the fun:

Amber - http://amberdunson.blogspot.com/

Chilli - http://polishandpoise.blogspot.com/

Jamie - http://www.nailsadored.com

Jen - http://sweettipsnails.blogspot.com/

If you want to join in this challenge, please link your manicure in the comments and I will add your blog to the list of participating bloggers! Merry Christmas!

Fozzie the Bear

I entered the second week of the OPI Mani Madness contest with this manicure. The challenge was to make a manicure using Fozzie the Bear as the inspiration. I thought perhaps that I would skip this week, seeing as I got food poisoning on Monday evening last week, and did not actually get to painting this mani until Wednesday. I knew I would have some ground to cover to get the votes I needed to be on top. Instead of simply featuring the different aspects of Fozzie, like his face, necktie, and hat, I wanted to place Fozzie in a situation that would reflect his humor and his struggle with getting heckled all of the time.

I give you: Fozzie Gets Heckled! I painted Fozzie doing his thing on stage in the spotlight, and above him are Statler and Waldorf booing him from the balcony seats. I painted details of the curtains and wall decorations from the theater walls on my index and pinky fingers. 

I started with OPI Big Apple Red on my nails. This is a lovely bright red and worked really well as a base for this dramatic manicure. 

I started with my thumb by painting the theater curtains behind Fozzie. The folds are darker towards the top of the image, and lighter where the spotlight is shining on him. I used acrylic paint for all of the artwork in this manicure. 

Here's Fozzie in the early stages of the manicure. I made his head a little too short to start with, but the great thing about acrylic paint is that it lets you rework an image fairly easily. 

More shading and I added his mouth. The highlights on his fur were pure yellow paint. I find it is really important to look at the colors in the image I am trying to create and think about what colors they really are without thinking about the rest of the image. Shape and color are really exciting to isolate. 

"Patriotism swells in the heart of the American Bear!" - I love that line from Fozzie in the original Muppet Movie. So funny!

The bane of Fozzie's existence: Statler and Waldorf! Did you know that these two Muppet hecklers were named after hotels in New York? The Statler Hilton and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. 

Waldorf was voiced by Jim Henson from 1970 to 1990, which makes it even funnier that Jim would take so much glee in heckling Frank Oz who played Fozzie. Waldorf has also been voiced by Dave Goelz and Victor Yerrid. 

I really like how Statler turned out. He's got super skinny arms and his nose shadow cracks me up for some reason. It's hilarious! Statler was originally performed by Richard Hunt until 1991, then by Jerry Nelson, Steve Whitmire, and Drew Massey. 

Look! Fozzie is pointing at Fozzie! Wocka, Wocka!

I am so proud to tell you that I won this past challenge! I worked really hard on these nails, and I so appreciate all of the people who voted for me, and also who voted for the other girls too. There is a lot of talent out there! You can see my nails posted on OPI's facebook page by clicking here. The new challenge this week is to paint a manicure inspired by Gonzo. I just adore Gonzo! I am looking forward to the manicures this week and really hope that some girls take it over the top. There is so much to be inspired by with the Muppet canon. Which includes shooting Gonzo out of a cannon. ;-)

PIG POWER

I entered this manicure in the OPI Mani Madness Contest for the Miss Piggy theme. I used a cool poster that I had on my bedroom wall when I was younger as the inspiriation. Sadly, I was not successful in winning the contest. But I will be entering the contest again this week with the Fozzie the Bear theme. I cannot post images of my Fozzie  manicure until after the voting is over as per the rules of the contest, but I would love it if you would check out the contest and vote for me.

I used a lovely purple polish (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Urgent Orchid) for the background and did all of the rest of the artwork with acrylic paints. 

Here is the poster that hung on my bedroom door when I was an early teen. I kept it there for years because I loved it so! I found this image online here: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Muppet_posters

Here is the beginning of Piggy. I had the most difficulty with shading. 

Here's Piggy pretty much done. She's so fierce looking! Hiyyyyyaah!

I added her purple silk gloved hand in a karate chop move. The white accent around the glove gives it fun motion and drama. 

Thanks for checking this out, and be sure to vote on my Fozzie the Bear manicure this week.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Inspired by a Movie

The pressure was on to really do a good job on this manicure. I live in Sonoma County, California, the home of Charles M. Schulz. Yeah, that Charles M. Schulz. Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, and good ol' Charlie Brown. I have had the honor of broadcasting from the Charles M. Schulz Museum, as well as conducting interviews with Sparky's son, Craig, on occasion. The Schulz family is really involved in our community, and we have lots of Peanuts statues all over town. So I knew I had to really hit this one out of the park.

It's Linus and Sally in the pumpkin patch from "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" This was such a fun manicure to do, and really came out as I hoped it would. 

I wanted to capture the amazing backgrounds that are in the film (which was made as a TV special back in 1966), which you should really check out the next time you watch this Halloween classic. The backgrounds during Snoopy's imaginary trip to France are especially evocative. This scene has an almost galactic expanse of sky behind Linus and Sally, perhaps reflecting Linus' unlimited imagination and unwavering faith in The Great Pumpkin. Or, maybe it is just pretty. :) I sponged two different blue polishes over black polish to get this effect, then added a few minuscule stars here and there with acrylic paint.

Here you see Sally, Charlie Brown's little sister, completely chewing out poor Linus for duping her into spending Halloween night in the pumpkin patch instead of having fun at "Tricks-or-Treats!" I thought this might be easier to do than some of the more realistic portraits I have been trying, but the economy of line in Schulz' drawings is so amazing. Every little nuance and emotion in so few simple, but perfect, lines. It's really hard to do it right. I hope I came somewhat close. 

I added the lovely pumpkins and the rest of the details on Linus and Sally next. I am so happy with how these turned out!

Polishes used in this manicure: Wet 'n Wild Fast Dry in Ebony Hates Chris, OPI No Room For The Blues, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue It. I also used Cult Nails Get It On basecoat and Seche Vite topcoat.

One special Peanuts-related memory for me was a broadcast outside of the Charles M. Schulz museum right before Halloween 2005 (it might have been 2006). I was producing for Marcy Smothers and her special guest was Linus Maurer. Linus was long time friends with Schulz, and a fellow cartoonist. Schulz based his character Linus Van Pelt on his friend Linus Maurer. Linus (the real one) always keeps a blanket/jacket in his trunk, a habit from old days in Minneapolis where he met Schulz. Linus also told us during this broadcast that he hands out packages of peanuts at Halloween. How awesome is that!? This is Marcy, Linus, and myself (I'm the goofball in the jack o'lantern t-shirt) waiting in the pumpkin patch for The Great Pumpkin. 

Tomorrow I will be back on schedule with nails inspired by fashion. Happy Halloween!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Half Moon Nails

Today's theme made perfect sense as a Halloween manicure. Half moon manicure designs were apparently popular in the 1920s and 1930s. I think they are a big pain in the butt. LOL. Seriously, this was the hardest manicure that I have done so far.

A fairly simple design, with a wolf howling at the (half) moon on my ring finger. Aaahwooooooo!

I started with a white polish base. Then I totally messed up by trying to free hand the half moon design in a dark, glass flecked blue. It was way too dark, and also my lines for the half moons were TERRIBLE. So I started over, and took everything off of my left hand, and slapped some more white polish on.

I dug around in my office supplies until I found reinforcement stickers, and used those to mask the moon on the nail and painted this lighter blue on instead. Sheesh. Even then, some of my lines were not clear, and some were too small or two big. Arg!

I painted this little wolfie on my ring finger and then added a bit of grey to the white half moon to mimic the markings on the face of the moon. It's not exact, but gives a feeling of the colors of the moon. 

Here's my right hand. It was a pretty mani, very simple, but sometimes simple can be the most difficult. 

Close up of my little wolf. He even has chest hair! (I guess he can't be Jacob, since Jacob has no chest hair. Hubba hubba.)

Polishes used in this manicure: Essie All In One basecoat, Wet 'n Wild French White Creme, OPI No Room For The Blues, and Seche Vite topcoat. 

Tomorrow it is galaxy nails! Yay!