Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!

Except shhhhh, don’t tell Woody (’cause you know he’s just going to make a great big thing out of it) but we were actually the ones doing the rescuing this time, by ridding the galaxy of the scourge of Evil Emperor Zurg!  And with top, maxed-out scores (999,999) aboard Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, no less. 🙂  Which qualified us for these awesomely cheesy certificates of merit declaring us GALACTIC HEROES!!!

It was fate then that we should swagger off the ride, high off of our own awesomeness (look at my face in the photo on the left, below – that is a Galactic Heroine who is feeling herself) and run straight into Buzz himself, who “signed” our certificates with a mighty judo chop to a special stamp.  Then he saluted our cunning and bravery, which no duh!  I dare say he was unbelievably impressed – we’re the King and Queen of Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, after all!

Flame On!

I was watching Cars this morning when it suddenly occurred to me that one of Ramone’s custom paint jobs – he’s the ’51 Impala who owns the paint shop – would make an excellent manicure.  So that’s precisely what I did, opting for his stylized flames-over-purple glitter number – it’s pretty badass for an animated car.

Disney Girl Challenge: Dory (One More Time)

So Finding Dory is going to make allllllll the movie money this weekend, yes?  Not bad for an animated Blue Tang with short-term memory loss.  And so in honour of the little blue fish that could, I thought I’d update an earlier Dory design of mine that I always felt was not quite up to snuff.  Besides, in that last manicure, she didn’t even have a face!  I didn’t do faces with my Disney designs back then, mostly because I’m sort of terrible at recreating animated figures.  I’m not sure *this* face is all that better, because as it turns out, drawing an animated fish face dead-on is actually pretty difficult!  But I do love Dory’s fins and the markings I painted on my other digits, mostly because cobalt, yellow and black together are just spectacular.  Quite the fetching fish, that Dory.

Up, Up and Away (31DC2014)

Today’s theme in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, rainbow, is a fun one, and never fails to inspire some amazingly creative works of fingertip art. I can’t speak for all the nail artists and bloggers out there, but my rainbow designs are always, without exception, my most popular and well received, to say nothing of the joy I get from using 20 different colours in one manicure. I have this not-at-all-tested theory that as magpie-like humans, we naturally gravitate towards multi-hued items or, in the case of commerce, displays that utilize the full spectrum of the rainbow. It just seems to be a pleasing arrangement of colours for most people, and the reason you selected a red sweater and a pink sweater from that rainbow-hued stack on display at the store, only to get home and realize that you bought a red sweater and a pink sweater and nothing more (no, I’m the only one?)

As I’m still taking a Disney-centric approach to the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, I thought I’d look to a favourite hated movie, Up, and specifically the bunches of rainbow-coloured balloons grumpy Carl presses into action in order to set his beloved house aloft and on its way to Paradise Falls (I say “favourite hated” because it really is such an adorable movie with a great heart and stunning graphic design and all that other good stuff I never notice because I’m too busy sobbing like a lunatic from the gut-punch that is the first 10 minutes.)

Disney Girl Challenge: Celia (31DC2014)

I got two birds stoned at once with this manicure, as Ricky from the Trailer Park Boys might say, by combining day six’s theme of violet in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge with my own casual, no-end-in-sight Disney Girl Challenge. The result? Celia from Monsters Inc., Mike Wazowki’s Medusa-haired girlfriend and loved-up Schmoopsy Poo. Celia is sort of personality-less on her own, although her hair, a nest of purple snakes who strenuously object when she contemplates a trim, really sells the whole package. Still, I’m starting to understand why Celia’s a bit of a pill – it must be hard being constantly upstaged and/or threatened with venomous bites by your hair.

Pixar Princesses

That title is actually something of a misnomer, as the majority of the women and girls of the Pixar Universe are not princesses.  Cars, yes, robots, also yes, monsters, fish and superheroes, yes, yes and yes, but very rarely a straight up princess (hi there, Merida.)  But as part of my ongoing Disney Girl Challenge, the term “princess” fits, even if the Pixar ladies tend to be anything but. 

As I mentioned some posts back, I seem to be just past the halfway mark of my self-imposed and aforementioned Disney Girl Challenge, in which I’m attempting to capture every Disney female, be they fish, fowl or whatever else the Disney animators can come up with, in tiny lacquered form.  A couple of weeks back I posted a gallery of the more traditional Disney ladies (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and the other bajillion princesses) and now I’d like to share some of my favourite Pixar picks, even though, as I’ve discussed – at length – Pixar movies generally make me cry big, ugly tears of patheticness that I don’t like to share with people other than my husband (besides, he’s the only one who can understand me when I’m gulping down great, hitching sobs because the interstate has bypassed Radiator Springs or Ellie and Carl can’t have kids. AND THEN SHE DIES AND HE’S ALL ALONE! See, I told you it was bound to get ugly.)

Disney Girl Challenge: Peach

Finding Nemo’s deadpan starfish, Peach, provided the inspiration for these nails, which feature two smirking Peaches bobbing along in a sea of turquoise blue. These nails are pretty simple, as there’s not much to Peach visually (although let’s take a moment to appreciate the pink-to-coral thermal colour changer I used here, Polish Me Silly’s appropriately-titled Peach Me a Lesson; I thought it was particularly fitting, as certain species of starfish can change their colours as a camouflage response.) But what Peach lacks in visual fireworks she more than makes up for with her withering glances, droll delivery (courtesy of the always wonderful Allison Janney) and wackadoo maternal side, like that oddball aunt everyone has that every time you see her, maybe she’s a little drunk? That’s Peach, just in saltwater!

Disney Girl Challenge: Dot

Cute little Dot, A Bug’s Life’s nearly-reigning princess-in training, was the inspiration for these nails, in which I tried to capture her pretty gossamer wings and freckled, purple and turquoise skin (wait, do bugs have skin? I think it’s called an exoskeleton. Wait here for a sec while I look this up. *Consults Google* Okay, according to the Google overlords, ants, like all insects, have an exoskeleton. Yay me! Team Finger Candy for the science win!)

Disney Dolls

Late last year, feeling bereft of nail art inspiration, I embarked on a casual, self-imposed challenge to capture the girls and women of the Disneyverse, be they princess, villainess or something in between. Titled the Disney Girl Challenge and now spanning seven months, 40 some-odd posts and over 35 Disney properties, I thought I was reaching the end of my list of Disney ladies (I have an actual list), when I realized that between the more traditional Disney picks and Pixar’s offerings (they get their own separate post), I’ve probably only reached the halfway mark.

But I try to be a “the nail polish bottle is half full” type of person, and so I won’t look at this as an uphill battle (literally uphill, in the snow, in flats at least as I further tackle Elsa and Anna from Frozen) and instead look back in fondness and for future inspiration at the nails that have come before, from Disney’s first animated princess, Snow White, to more random picks like The Nightmare Before Christmas’s Sally and Cinderella’s Ugly Stepsisters. I’ve had a blast so far putting my own lacquered spin on the fair maidens of the Disneyverse, and I love finding unexpected ways of expressing each lady’s uniquely individual style (except for the bow thing; all Disney girls, especially the young ones in their jammies at a window and/or being watched over by seven little people, LOVE big, flouncy bows.) I hope you enjoy this gallery as much as I enjoyed doing the manicures these pictures represent. 🙂

Disney Girl Challenge: Jessie

Oh, I have such issues – crying, sobbing issues – with the Toy Story movies. Nearly all Pixar movies, actually, and the vast majority of Disney’s animated offerings, too (please, for the love of all that’s holy, STOP KILLING OFF THE PARENTS!) But there’s just something about the Toy Story series that utterly destroys me, whether it’s Woody worrying that Andy’s outgrown him or Jessie winding up at a junk sale (her song reduces me to a puddle of soggy tears, every. single. time) or the toys holding hands in a furnace. I haven’t even seen the third movie and the thought alone is enough to set me sobbing. So I won’t see it, and you can’t make me! I have it on very good, trusted authority – comments Kevin Smith has made, a joke from The Big Bang Theory, an article my mom read about movies that make men weep – that I will be a useless, waterlogged pile of depression after watching the third Toy Story movie, and so I shall abstain. I’ve got no problem with that whatsoever.

But I still do love the Toy Story movies, and Jessie in particular (although Hamm is the best, then, now, always.) She’s smart and sassy, brave and self-reliant, AND she possesses one of the most unique wardrobes of any Disney girl (you think you’d ever see Cinderella in a pair of cowhide chaps? I think not.) Her personal style calls out for a bit of inspired-by nail art, and THAT I can certainly oblige with these Jessiefied nails. So yee haw, and giddy-up!