Stamping Decal Method Tutorial

Hi lovelies! Heck, I’ve just had one of THOSE past few days. My days in general weren’t bad! Not at all! It’s just like some people were born with a talent to completely ruin it for you with their negativity and crap attitudes. People like that, you suck! Seriously! Buuuuut I decided to not let it get to me because I had an amazing weekend! Not only did I get to hang out with 2 of my closest friends the whole long weekend but I met the most amazing ladies at the Johannesburg Bloggers Who Bless meet-up on Saturday! I truly felt blessed in every sense when I left there and I can’t wait for the next meet-up! Ladies, you ROCK!

Now, on to some nail art. Today is truly a first for my little blog because it’s going to be my very first pictorial/tutorial on Madness!! I’ve done a few for Heather at Femme Lifestyle but I decided it’s high time I do a tutorial for my own little space. I decided to go with the decal stamping method because I got quite a few requests for it after I did it in THIS post. Before we go on though, I unfortunately do not know who was the first person who came up with this technique but first my exposure to it was through Nailz Craze. I will also put up a link to her tutorial at the end of this post, just in case you could do with someone else’s perspective on this technique.

You’ll need:  
- Stamping Plate
- Stamper with rubber end
- Thin nail art brush
- Clear nail polish
- Few colors of nail polish of your choice
- Tweezer
- Top Coat
- Cleanup brush  
- Acetone

Click on Pictorial to make it larger.

Step 1 – 2: Start by picking up the image of your choice from a stamping plate and wait for it to dry. I used Bundle Monster plate BM-319.
 
Step 3:
Using nail polish colors of your choice, fill in the negative spaces with the thin nail art brush and wait for it to dry. The colors I used was China Glaze Make An Entrance and Tip Top Nail Addict Aliminium.

Step 4:
Lay down a generous layer of top coat over your filled in image and wait for it to dry properly! I like to use Essence Gel-Look Top Coat because it’s a bit thicker than your normal topcoat. I also leave it for about 2hours so I know the decal is properly set but I'm sure 30mins would be enough.

Step 5:
Using your tweezer, lift the decal slowly off of the stamper’s base.
 
Step 6:
Lay down a thin coat of top coat down over the nail you want to add the decal to. Leave it until it’s feeling slightly tacky and then lay down the decal over the nail. Using a light touch, smooth the decal down onto the nail and give it proper time to dry.

Step 7:
Using your clean up brush and some acetone, clean away the excess of the decal and lay down a coat of your favourite top coat to smooth it all out. Le viola, you are done! Side Tip: Pre-cutting your decal to the shape of your nail is an awesome idea, which is only something that dawned on me now *facepalm*. Or use small nail scissors to cut off most of the excess before you start the acetone clean up.  

Phew, long post! I do apologize for that but I hope you found this useful! This is one of my favorite techniques and it’s a great way to spice up conventional stamping. Like I said, Nail Craze is the first place where I saw this done so for her tutorial, click HERE.

Lots of mad love...