The Ghost of Christmas Past recalls a time when two googly eye inspired designs were released, but now the Ghost of Christmas Future dances with Samhain in celebration of the upcoming release of Halloween and Christmas nail wraps from VandalEyes!
Anne Wheaton and Bonnie Burton, the minds behind VandalEyes, join us for a special Q&A in anticipation of the release of these two spooktastic, jolly nail wrap designs. NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER
VandalEyes is an online sensation and yet not everyone knows how it came to be. What's the origin story that led up to the creation of googly-eyed nail wraps?
BONNIE: I've always had fun putting googly eyes on everything from houseplants to bus signs. When I was a kid I thought it was funny to put googly eyes on light switches, cornstalks, and random rocks. Clearly, I still find it amusing. Whenever I would stay at a friend's house I would wake up in the middle of the night and put googly eyes on everything inside their fridge as a funny surprise when they opened the door. When I stayed at Anne's house once, I decided to put googly eyes on their light switches, toaster, wine bottles and even the toilet to see if they noticed. Not only did Anne and Wil notice, Anne and I decided right then and there to join googly eye forces and start VandalEyes. You can see our results of random googly eyeing on our blog VandalEyes.net.
ANNE: When I was a kid, I would make crafts with googly eyes all the time. I even painted a rock red and put googly eyes on it just so my pet rock could have a face! When I met Bonnie about 8 years ago, she had a bag of googly eyes she carried in her purse to put on things and it reminded me of how much I loved them as a kid, and then we started doing them together and posting pics online occasionally. Then a short time later, I was going to WonderCon with my husband and planned to put googly eyes on as many things there as possible (sort of secretly) but I wanted a hashtag people could go to on Twitter to find my photos. I'm all about puns so I came up with VandalEyes because it's adorable vandalism with googly eyes.
Nearly three years ago, the Nerd Misfits here at Espionage Cosmetics HQ had the opportunity to work with you. After hopping on a plane to join us for a very VandalEyes'd photo shoot (complete with 10,000+ googly eyes), what moments stuck out to you the most?
BONNIE: I've never felt more glamorous by wearing a fabulous gown covered in googly eyes thanks to the Espionage staff who hired a talented designer to make it. Anne and I were dressed up like fashionable women from the '50s but covered in googly eyes. It was like Mad Men but much much better because it was us.
ANNE: When Bonnie and I went to Seattle for the VandalEyes nail wrap photoshoot, I was blown away by the dresses that were made for us to wear, the time put into the googly eyes glued to the shoes, and how excited the whole Espionage crew was to create these photos. I loved how enthusiastic everyone was and how welcoming they were. It definitely had a lasting affect on me and is why I looked forward to creating new wraps together and continuing this relationship with Espionage!
So about these two NEW sets of VandalEyes nail wraps... You collaborated with the Espionage Cosmetics designers for a second round of designs. Tell us a little about them and the decision towards holiday oriented nail wraps.
BONNIE: I am a big fan of the holidays -- especially winter holidays! Any holiday that encourages to make snow angels while drunk of eggnog is dandy in my book. I can't wait to wear nail wraps with glitter and glam so when I sip hot chocolate and eggnog the sparkle will be dazzling.
ANNE: I love the holidays and when Bonnie and I were talking about fun new projects we could do together, we immediately thought of googly eye nail wraps! We came up with a few ideas and worked with the Espionage designers to create something adorably unique and I absolutely love the end results.
BONNIE BURTON is a boss author (The Star Wars Craft Book), journalist, comedian, and personality (Ask Bonnie, Felicia Day's Vaginal Fantasy Book Club) hailing from San Francisco. Bonnie puts a lot of love into books that bring about laughter, smiles, and creativity thanks to ideas from pop/comic culture and her many dreams. Her favorite work is Crafting With Feminism which can be obtained internationally through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and online retailers. Want to show support for your favorite, local bookstore? Place an order for Crafting With Feminism! Follow Bonnie on Twitter and read her articles on CNET.
ANNE WHEATON is the Queen of Puns and beloved philanthropist. Anne, her husband Wil Wheaton, and Lar deSouza together created a book called A Guide To Being a Dog. The book is based on tweets "by" their furbaby Seamus Wheaton and is written as if Seamus were giving advice to the Wheaton's younger pup Marlowe. Signed copies of the book were gifted to those who helped the Wheatons raise money for the Pasadena Humane Society and SPCA. In August, an auction was held for the same cause and both (in total) helped raise $46,000. Follow Anne Wheaton on Twitter and visit her website.
