My Favorite Guardian of the Forest

Hey, everyone!

I am so so excited about today's post! It stems from a childhood love of mine - My Neighbor Totoro! Keep reading to find out more about this cute design!

I know a lot of people really love Studio Ghibli movies, from Ponyo to Castle in the Sky to Howl's Moving Castle and Kiki's Delivery Service. Well my introduction to Hiyao Miyazaki and his films of beauty and wonder was My Neighbor Totoro. My family's VHS copy is so worn out now that we had to transfer it to DVD for safe keeping! I love everything about this movie - the scenery, the characters, the sweet atmosphere, and especially Totoro!

When I learned that the brand Hehe had come out with stamping plate collection inspired by Miyazaki's movies, I knew I HAD to get at least one! I ended up ordering two of the My Neighbor Totoro plates, plate #065 (one for me and one for my grandma), and I was really pleased to find that they were really inexpensive for such great quality! Oh, and below you can see my adorable Totoro, complete with leaf umbrella. He's one of my favorite little fuzzy possessions, and he's very good at guarding my coin jar!

To start off my design, I painted my nails with two easy coats of Maybelline Bare Escape, which is my favorite light grey polish. When that was dry, I used Born Pretty Store stamping plate BP-19 and China Glaze Westside Warrior to stamp some leaves on my index, middle, and pinky fingers. Then I used black polish to stamp the soot sprites or dust bunnies from the Hehe plate onto my ring finger. My only complaint is that I wish the dust bunnies had pupils! They kinda look soulless without them, but I guess they're not incredibly noticeable. Last I used Sinful Colors Smokin to stamp Totoro onto my thumb. I carefully applied topcoat and was good to go!

Materials Used

Maybelline Bare Escape

China Glaze Westside Warrior

Sinful Colors Smokin

Franken black stamping polish

Stamping plate BP-19

Hehe stamping plate 065

I really really love this stamping plate! Besides the issue of the missing pupils on the dust bunnies, I kinda wish there was maybe a cat bus smile and eyes or something like that. But those desires aside, this plate is perfectly engraved and the images are so fantastic! I can't wait to use some of the other images on this plate! Do you have a favorite Studio Ghibli movie? Let me know below! Thanks for stopping by!