Nail Stamping Tips & Tutorials 3 - Direct Decal Method

This is a different way of making decals and it has been around for a while. Other people call it as reverse stamping or advance stamping. To me, these names didn't stick, so I call it the direct decal method. No matter what you call it, I find this method to be a lot easier and faster compared to the traditional decal making.

Instruction

1. Paint your nails with the base color. 

2. Stamp a design on a stamper as usual. You can use a tape to take off any unwanted area from the stamper. Let it dry for a bit. 

3. Using a dotting tool or a brush, color in the design. You might want to wait for a bit to add different color to avoid mixing of colors. 

4. Let the design dry to the touch. 

5. Stamp the decal directly on the nail. You want to put a bit more pressure to make sure it sticks and gently lift the stamper off.

6. Pat down any area if lifting. And clean off with an acetone-dipped brush. 

7. Put a coat of top coat to seal the design. And you are done!

Tips

1. If you have multiple stamper heads, you can make several decals at the same time to save time. And make sure you use squishy stamper heads!

2. Be patient! The design has to be fairly dry before stamping on nails or it can smudge. (It happens to me sometime because I'm impatient!!)

3. Be careful when you color in the design. You can accidentally lift the outlines from the design. It is better to put rather generous amount of polish on dotting tool or brush so that not to disturb the outlines much. 

There you have it! I hope you give it a try if you haven't yet!

Love,

Little Dot

Nail Stamping Tips & Tutorials 2 - How to Make Decals

As I promised on my previous post here, I am posting a tutorial on how to make decals!

Here is another design I did using decals!

How to make a decal 

1. Transfer a design on a stamper as usual. 

2. Let it dry for a bit. Use a dotting tool to add colors to the design. If you are using multiple colors, make sure you dry each additions to avoid mixing colors. 

3. Let it dry completely. Then put a top coat over the design. Dry completely. 

4. When dry, using a dotting tool or tweezer, ply it off the stamper. 

5. Place it on nail and press it down gently. 

6. Apply top coat and clean up excess with acetone dipped brush. 

That's it! Pretty simple. Here are some tips. 

1. It is better to use firm stampers rather than using soft squishy ones. The firm stampers tend to transfer images very clear and not distorted. Also, when you ply the decal off, you don't have to worry too much about damaging the surface of the stamper. 

2. When you add colors, you don't have to worry too much about being precise. The lines of the image will show through even you color over it because you will be turning the decals over when you place them on your nails. The first layer (the stamped lines) will show when you flip the decal over. 

3. Timing is important. You have to wait long enough to dry the decal on stamper but if you wait too long, the decal will harden too much and it will be a bit difficult to place on nails. It might not stick to your nail when placed. If that happens, put a thin top coat on your nail and just wait till tacky stage, then place the decal very carefully. 

For this look, I first made the bird decals using a bird image from Messy Mansion plate MM14. While decals are drying, I painted my nails with Essie Borrowed & Blue and OPI It's Frosty Outside (silver glitter). I used birds on wire image from Messy Mansion plate MM14 for stamping with Konad Black Pearl stamping polish. I placed the decals on my nails and finished up with HK Girl top coat. 

I decided to do the bird design because I've seen a lot of birds lately. They are swarming on trees, sky, everywhere!!! 

I hope you try making decals if you have never done so. It takes some time but it's fun to do!

Love,

Little Dot

Nail Stamping Tips & Tutorials 1 - What Is Nail Stamping?

I wanted to do some posts on tips and tutorials of nail stamping. So here is the first one.

What is nail stamping?

The nail stamping has been around for a few years now but there are a lot of people who don't know about it. I myself didn't know about it until last summer and I am often asked by other people how I did my nails. It is a great way to dress up your nails without spending hours trying to free-hand designs (and I don't think that many people are ambidextrous enough to draw designs on both hand nails!) There are a few basic tools you need to do nail stamping. 1. Image plate.  2. Stamper. 3. Scraper. That's it. Not much, right? 

1. Image plates

Image plates are usually metal flat plates with designs etched onto them. They come in circles and rectangle shapes in various sizes. There are so many different companies out there making these plates. Some of the companies are Konad, Bundle Monster, Pueen, just to name a few. 

2. Stamper

Stamper is a tool you use to transfer the image from the plate to your nails. Again, many company makes them and some are better than the other. The one that I have been using with constant good result is from Konad. 

3. Scraper

Scraper is used to scrape excess nail polish off the design plate so that the stamper can pick up the tidy design off the plates. Many times, you buy a stamper and the scraper might come with it as a set. But funny thing is I use an old credit card!! And not just me but many people do! Because the metal scrapers tend to scratch up design plates and plastic one might not be even surfaced to scrape the polish neatly. So before investing any money on scraper, try old gift card or expired credit card etc. to see if that works for you. 

How To:

So now you got your tools ready, let's go over quickly what you suppose to do. You should obviously paint your nails first with your base color and dry completely.

1. Pick a design you like to transfer to your nail. 

2. Put a little bit of nail polish at the edge of the design you are using. 

3. Use a scraper at 45 degree angle, drag it over the design to spread the polish and scrape off the extra polish off the plate. 

4. Quickly, press down the stamper on the image to pick up the design. 

5. Quickly glance to see if the image is picked up as desired (if not, stamp it off on paper and start from the beginning. ) 

6. If it looks good, quickly roll the stamper over your nail to transfer the design onto your nails. 

7. Clean the plate, stamper, and scraper with acetone soaked cotton pads as needed. 

I use these ones called HandsDown Ultra which has a tab and backing on one side so that you won't mess up your already painted nails! Available from Sally Beauty. 

8. Clean up any polish outside of your nails on skin with polish remover and q-tip or small cosmetic brush soaked with acetone. Top with top coat to seal the design. 

Did you notice I repeated "quickly" from step 4 - 6? Those steps have to be pretty quick because after scraping the extra polish off the plate, there is only thin layer of polish to work with. And it dries out very quickly if you are not fast enough. 

Some tips for beginners

1. Start small. 

Rather than going out and buy tons of stuff, start out with a small kit to try out. I started my nail stamping with a small inexpensive kit from Essence. This kit includes all 3 tools you need, an image plate, a stamper, and a scraper (but use old credit card or gift card instead as I suggested above!) 

2. Use a very opaque polish. 

It makes huge difference which polish you use. The best black and white stamping polishes are from Konad (from my experience!) But if you want to try out without spending a lot, the very good silver polish to use is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep. Other Sally Hansen Insta-Dri colors are pretty well pigmented. If the polish you use can cover your nail with one coat, that would likely work as stamping polish. 

Some of my favorite polish for stamping. From left to right, Konad white, Konad Black Pearl, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep, Nails inc. Chelsea Bridge Road, Ceramic Glaze My Skinny Jeans. 

3. Don't forget to peel off plastic covering from plates!

It is so easy to get discouraged if you forget this step! Most of image plates come with thin plastic protective films on them. Sometimes these are blue and easy to see but sometimes they are clear and if you don't know, you might not even notice that is there. If you don't peel these films off, no matter how hard you try, you cannot transfer any images to your stamper!! (It happened to my friend. So TRUST me!)

4. Practice makes perfect!

Don't get discouraged if the first few tries are not as you expected. The more you practice, the better you get. Also, some tools work better than the other. The Essence kit I started out was a decent one so I highly recommend trying those if you can find them in your local stores. They are available from Shoppers Drugmart if you are in Canada or Ulta and other drug stores if you are in the States. And I believe Essence products are available in many European countries. And if you are lucky enough to find a small Konad stamping set somewhere inexpensively (I found a couple of these at Winners!), grab it! I think Konad started these nail stamping stuff first and the quality of their plates, stampers, and stamping polish are excellent. 

5. Get everything ready before starting. 

Prepare the table by putting some flyers and paper towel. Place everything you need so that you don't have to run around getting them. This is what my basic set up looks like. 

6. Put top coat on base color before stamping!

This step will help you if you mess up with your stamping. If you mess up and want to take the stamp off your nails, you can roll lint roller over it to stick the stamping polish off if you are quick. If it is a bit too late and it doesn't come off, you might be able to lightly swipe it off with acetone soaked cotton. If you are careful, your base color might be still intact and you can continue with the re-try!

I hope this tutorial and tips will help you if you are just starting out. I read a lot of blogs when I started out and that helped me a lot. If you have any questions, please comment. I will try to answer as much as I can. 

Happy stamping!

Love,

Little Dot