Stamping decal tutorial - The easiest and quickest decals you'll ever make!

There are multiple ways to create coloured stamping designs and each technique has its pros and cons but I promise you that after trying this version you will be making decals quicker than ever before!

In the past I have done coloured stamping by using either a small paintbrush to add colour over the stamp (colouring in), this technique called Reverse Stamping or the lead lighting technique. A pro to colouring in is that's its quick. A drawback to painting colour is its hard to stay in the lines. A con to reverse stamping is that it takes a really long time between each step, however you can make 10 decals at a time meaning your can do an entire mani. Lead lighting has its drawbacks too in that you need to build a collection of suitable sheer or tinting polishes and you may get "smearing" especially with black stamping polish both when you apply the tints and also when you apply topcoat. However a bonus with lead lighting is that again you can do an entire mani and if you are sneaky you can make your own tinted polishes by thinning them and mixing with clear polish. 

If you want to smash out a punchy opaque accent design quickly and easily using the polishes you already own,  then the stamper decal technique is a beauty. There are a few tutorials floating around the net on how to do this but every one I have seen used a squishy stamper. I wanted to test a theory that I had that you can create these decals with any stamper, meaning that you can make a few at once by using all the different stampers that you have. So lets have a look at the results and how to create the decals. White squishy stamper vs. Konad mushroom stamper vs. firm green stamper - all available here.

STEP 1: Pick an image with parts that you can fill in that also has large amounts of background space for your secondary colour to shine through. Choose your outline colour and stamp the image onto your stamper of choice. I used Konad special stamping polish in white. Now the best part, you really don't need to wait very long before the next step, I left mine about 3 minutes. This heart design is from the Bundle Monster 2012 (300) collection, plate 317. Available here.

STEP 2: Use a small paintbrush and your polish of choice to colour in the parts of the design you want to highlight. I chose Orly - Beach Cruiser. Obviously choosing semi-sheer to opaque polish will give you more of a "pop" of colour but sheers and tints also work well because of the way the background colour becomes "undies" to the sheer polish. It's ok if you go outside the lines a little bit because once you flip the design over you won't really see it.  By the time I had coloured all the hearts in on all 3 stampers, the first one was dry so I moved on to step 3 right away.

STEP 3: Paint a thick layer of your background colour over the whole design. I ussed Barry M - Baby Pink which is a creme that is slightly sheer, it needs 2/3 coats for full opacity but for the decals I just did one coat. You can see the design showing through which highlights the density of the polish.

STEP 4: Now this step seems like it would take ages before you could do it. Not so much. I was tricked because the polish looked shiny, like it was still wet. But after 10 minutes it was completely dry! And shiny! Gently slide your nail under the edge and start to peel your design off.

The squishy rectangle stamper which you can get here was a little hard to get started. I jimmed my thumb around the whole edge to make sure it was lifting away but once I got the whole thing free it came away easily. You could also use a dotting tool to poke under it but I would be worried about dinging my squishy stamper. My nail worked fine. I noticed that the decal from this stamper was the most crisp and the stamping itself the most opaque.

It peeled cleanly away with no holes or tears or sticky spots. It may have left some while stamping polish behind but I couldn't see any spots in the design so I'm assuming it didn't.

With the Konad red mushroom stamper available here - it came away SO easily and seemed to be much stronger than the squishy one, more flexible and less likely to break.

It peeled off very easily, it did leave a few teeny tiny bits of white stamping polish on the stamper though and you can see in the outlines where the polish is spotty.

The super firm green rectangle stamper, available here - This one needed some gentle nudging to get it started and I accidentally made a couple of rips because I was being impatient and jabbed at it with a dotting tool. Whoopsie! It was the most difficult to peel but once I got it started it was fine. No polish left on the stamper but the outline was a little spotty.

Here is the end result with my decals ready to apply to my nail. Pretty! Left is firm green stamper, right is white squishy stamper and bottom is Konad mushroom stamper. The squishy stamper one is definitely the best but the others also came out fine, just a bit muted in comparison.

STEP 4: Trim your decals to your approximate nail size.

STEP 5: Apply a layer of base coat to your naked nail then gently place the decal over it whilst it is still wet. Use your finger tip to GENTLY smooth out any wrinkles and also fold over the tip of the nail for a clean edge. When it is firmly in place and the base coat underneath has dried (no decal movement when touched) use nail scissors to trim off excess. You don't need to go to crazy with trimming as you can remove the excess decal with nail polish remover and your clean up brush.

STEP 6: Now this part has options. You can apply topcoat first, wait for it to dry then clean up OR clean up first then apply topcoat. I did the first option. The topcoat will smooth out any dings or wrinkles, its like magic!

I loved how these decals turned out however I was most impressed by how quick each layer dried on the stamper. There was virtually no smearing when I applied topcoat and the finished product is vibrant. Can you just imagine the possibilities of all the different designs you could make! The white squishy stamper was the clear winner in terms of quality. If you give this technique a go we would love to see and hear how you went xx

Crafty Hearts - Making Nail Decals part 2

Today is part 2 of how to make your own nail decals. Previously we looked at how to create zig zags using pinking shears. This time we are using another common craft tool, the hole punch. With a large varsity of shapes and images available in most scrapbooking aisles, the possibilities are endless! So if you like the look of these glitter heart decals here's how you do it.......

Start off by painting nail polish onto baking paper. Do one thick coat and let it dry. Apply another thick coat then let it dry overnight to ensure it is hard. Painting the polish in 4 cm width squares or rectangles is the ideal shape as you can maximise the area you can put through the craft punch.

You can use a variety of polishes, smooth or chunky glitters, cremes, and liquids sands. Stay away from using sheer polishes as the base colour you apply under the decals will show through with your final result. 

After leaving your polish strips overnight, gently peel them off the baking paper. Use you craft punch to punch out the shapes. The brand I used was Fiskers. They are great as they have a little catcher on the top of them that catches the shapes you punch out so when you are done you open the lid and tip all the shapes out rather than them ending up all over the place. 

Out of these size polish squares I got 12 decals of each colour.

I store my decals in these nail wheels so they are ready to go whenever I am in the mood to use them. To apply them I start with 2 coats of my base colour and then 1 coat of fast drying topcoat. When that is completely dry I use a small dab of top coat under the heart to stick it to the nail. Applying that layer of top coat first allows you to move the heart into position without dinting your base colour. Apply another thick layer of topcoat over the decal to seal it down.

This is such a simple technique that gives incredible results, its really striking! I hope you decide to give it a go with your favourite polishes.

Lush Lacquer - Neon Lights

The 80s called.....they want their fabulous nails back! Today's post takes a closer look at another bobby dazzler from Lush Lacquer, Neon Lights. I heart this polish sooooooooooooooooo much. Ok stop reading and go look at the pictures. 

Neon Lights is a white jelly base with a mix of neon glitters.  There are pink, yellow, green and orange hexagons in 3 different sizes. The glitter sits in the suspension base perfectly which meant I didn't need to dig for glitter, I just applied it like I would a normal polish. The formula was patchy with one coat but evened up with 2. It smoothes down nicely with topcoat. This is 2 coats, no undies with topcoat.

The hearts are sequins which I stuck on using a dotting tool and some base coat, then I applied 2 coats of Seche Vite over the top to flatten them. You can get the heart sequins here.

Really I can't express in words how amazing this polish is, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. If you love brights on your nails but want something a little less in your face then this polish is perfect for you. You know you need it in your collection. Off you go...off to Lush Lacquer and yes they ship to Australia...winning!!

Valentines Day - Round 2

Only 8 days left to find your knight in shining armour to whisk you away to your happily ever after.....in the meantime I hope you enjoy the 2nd of my Valentines Day manicures. This one is a little more traditional with pink and hearts a plenty.

The pink is Barry M - Strawberry Ice cream. The black is China Glaze - Liquid Leather. 

On my thumb I used Daring Digits - Blackberry Square which is quickly becoming my most loved indie. I'm a sucker for anything black and white and its got squares in it....oh yeah. For my pinkie I used silver metal studs. It was so hard to get a good picture of them, they are super shiny and amazing and I will be using them again very soon. You can get the studs here. The little heart is this gorgeous stick on black opal mini gem. Its a black holographic colour and I cant stop staring at it! They come in a set with 9 other colours and you can get them here. 

The hearts on my index and middle fingers were stamped. Index was MLS-05 plate and the hearts in a row were created by Natalie from NailCraze NC 01. I think I totally fluked getting them in the middle of my nail. The plate stamped beautifully and I cant wait to try the butterfly prints and the feather.

Monochrome Madness meets Dashica stamping

Black, white and grey, a classic combo that never goes out of style. And with Valentines Day just around the corner, I suppose it's time to start hiding a few hearts here and there. Got to LOVE the kitchen sink mani, solves the problem of never being able to decide what to do. Do everything! 

The grey is China Glaze Recycle with China Glaze White on White. The black is OPI Black, I have no idea what its called the sticker fell off ages ago. I stamped with Barry M Silver Foil and used plate Dash8 from the Dashica 20 piece stamping collection. The glitter is an indie polish from All That Glitters called Space Rock.

Here is the set in its entirety and it comes in this amazing little storage purse...cute! You can get the set from here.

The plates are super high quality and stamp exceptionally well and when you think of the cost of individual Konad stamping plates they are great value.