Bangorang!

Created 27th January.
Hook is one of my childhood favourites and as I'm creating a pirate look for my make-up project this term I decided to re-watch it for inspiration (and to re-live my childhood).
It took me a while to decide on the designs for each nail. I've made it a pirates vs lost boys theme with pirates on my left hand and lost boys on my right.
On my left hand I have Hook's hook (I wanted to write the film's title above it as well but thought it would look a little too busy so I decided to just add a shine to the hook). Then I have the pocket watch Peter gave to his son before he was kidnapped by Hook. I wanted to put Hook on my nails without having to draw his whole face so I just drew his moustache and eyebrows as they really define his face. Then there's Hook's red coat and buttons. On the last nail I drew a crocodile print, Hook's worst enemy.
On my right hand I have a baseball, which is a big storyline between Peter and his son. It's also what gives Peter his happy thought and makes him fly again. Rufio is my favourite character so I had to include him somehow, I've drawn his black and red stripes and his name. I had to add Tinkerbell in there so I drew a golden silhouette with glitter fairy dust trailing behind her. The food fight is one of my favourite scenes so I wanted to get some bright colours in there, then I had to put the 'bangorang' over the top.  The last nail is a silhouette of the lost boy's tree house with the sunset behind.
I really enjoy doing film nails and would like to do them more often because it's not something that other people do a lot. They can also be far more personal and original than just choosing a theme.
Also a little shout out to my lovely kitty Bubbles who was 2 on the 27th!

 She likes to sit on my lap when I'm doing my nails.

Lego people

Created 12th January.
Always loved Lego as a kid, especially the little people because you can swap their heads and legs round. Recently returned to my obsession when I discovered the collectable Lego Miniatures. I've now collected quite a few (with only a couple of doubles which I'm surprised about), so I decided to put the ones I have so far on my nails.
I only have eight different mini's so far so I decided to put the 'Lego' logo on my thumb nail. For the rest there's a detective, a lego man in a dinosaur costume, a snowboarder and a gladiator on my left hand. Then on my right hand I have a clown (my favourite and I was so happy when I finally got him), an eskimo, a boxer with a bruised face, a female zookeeper and her monkey.
The new series of collectable Lego mini's is out now so it looks like I have a whole load more to add to my collection. Can't wait!

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Created 6th January.
Back at uni with a new group project which I'm equally excited and nervous about. The project title is 'In the Hall of the Pirate Council'. Can't wait to come up with some great fun pirate make up and prosthetic ideas!
To keep with this theme (and to impress my tutor with my enthusiasm for the project) I decided this would be a perfect time to do pirate themed nails. I've always wanted to do a treasure map on my nails since I saw The Daily Nail's amazing 'X Marks the Spot' nails, http://daily-nail.blogspot.com/2010/09/x-marks-spot.html, so I took that as influence and created my own treasure map design.
For the other hand I decided to do a variety of objects relating to pirates; a pirate flag, a telescope, a pirate himself with a gold earring, eye patch and head scarf, a glittering treasure chest and a bottle of grog.
My tutor was very impressed with the treasure map nails and even gave me ideas toward the project and how I can use a treasure map in the designs. Can't wait to get started with it all now!
One of my favourite lame jokes:
Why are pirates pirates?
Because they arrrrrrrrggghhh!!

Ten days of Christmas

Created from 13th December.
I had decided to do advent calendar nails the week before because I had been late picking up an obligatory chocolate advent calendar for myself this year so that gave me the idea. I had to wait until the 13th before I could paint on the doors because 10 days before Christmas starts on the 15th, unfortunately I don't have 12 fingers so I couldn't do the proper 12 days of Christmas. I decided to use just plain silver and gold for the doors to keep them simple. This made it easier for me to do retouching because they needed maintenance before the 10 days were up. I also placed the numbers randomly like you would see on a normal advent calendar, although I did strategically plan where each design would go first depending on the size of the design.

15th:

I started it all off with a nice traditional Christmas mistletoe. Unfortunately it was a bit too small to catch the attention of any boys.

16th:

This one's not quite so Christmassy because the 16th is my mum's birthday. Traditionally I usually give her the 16th chocolate from my advent calendar so this year I thought I'd go one step further and pay tribute to her in nail art form. She was very pleased with it.

17th:

A teeny red and white candy cane on a green background. I do love a good candy cane and this year we've decorated our house Christmas tree with them too!

18th:

A robin on a snowy white background.

19th:

A lit candle on a holder. This one is my favourite of the bunch because the tiny details came out nicely.

20th:

Holly and berries. Took a few goes to get this nail right and even now I still think it looks a bit plain. Decided to add gold stripes down the side and across the tip to give it a bit more structure.

21st:

Christmas pudding. Not the best pic because of the reflected light but it shows up the layer of silver glitter I painted over the brown. It looked too plain without it.

22nd:

Glittery wreath with a big red bow. This is my completed right hand with all the advent calendar doors uncovered.

23rd:

Pretty Christmas angel. Almost made her too big to fit the halo on her head but I made room for it. I like her tiny eyes and red lips.

Christmas eve:

Decorated Christmas tree with baubles, tinsel, a star and glitter sparkles. I wanted to fit in some presents under the tree too but I didn't quite make enough room for them. This nail was painted using my new nail art pens that I got for Christmas. Pack of 92 colours, including glitters! So excited to use them all! Many more nail art designs to come next year...

This is my completed left hand. Some of them have a few little chips because unfortunately the varnish doesn't tend to stay on very well for 10 days.

This is me and my friend Dave celebrating Christmas eve at my best friend Nyssa's house.

Winter wonderland

Created on 6th December.
Writing essays can be so tedious. Even when I'm writing about my favourite subject; zombies! So I took a break for a good couple of hours to make myself some nice winter themed nails.
I wanted them to just be white and different shades of blue for winter colours. Of course I had to add a few dashes of other colours here and there to complete my creations. From left to right; silver base with blue crackle nail polish. I rarely use this as I like to create my own designs and I find this polish cheats a bit because it's creating the look for me but I thought I'd try it out this once; blue and silver Christmas bauble on a white background; silver bells on a white background; blue stripe wrapping paper. This started out as candy cane stripes but I think it looks more like wrapping paper the way I've done it; a snowman that's ready to party! Then on the other hand; snow globe scene; present with a bow and silver tip; gold shooting star in a blue sky; a very cute penguin; and a snowflake.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Created on 26th November.
These are my first Christmas nails of the season. I'd actually just stuck some fairy lights on my wall as my first Christmas decoration, wasn't quite ready for the tree yet. Also as it was still November I wasn't quite ready to go all out festive so I thought some pretty fairy lights would do the trick. I painted every other nail either gold or silver with the new Barry M metallics. Then I painted the tips with either red or green glitter before doing the fine detail of the lights with my nail art pens. I also added a Thanksgiving turkey on one of my nails as my little Thanksgiving tribute.
I always go to my best friends house every year to celebrate and her mum cooks the best Thanksgiving dinner. She also gives me leftovers so I can have a second dinner the following day. I am yet to make a sandwich with a moistmaker though, a la Ross in 'Friends'.

Wonder Woman!

Created on 16th November.
My uni work had really begun to pick up at this point last term, I was getting really involved with making my first prosthetic and my wig was coming along nicely, however it was becoming very stressful for me as time was rapidly running out. I knew I needed to do something fairly simple with my nails which didn't take up too much time but still looked effective. I was having a cup of tea one evening with my Wonder Woman mug and I realised that would be a perfect theme.
I've used parts of her costume on most of my nails. The little fingers are her boots, the blue stars are her shorts, the yellow 'W' on my thumb is her top and the red star on the gold is her head band. I still had two blank nails left over so I decided to add her lips and a comic book style 'pow'.