FingerFood's Theme Buffet #6: Hearts

Hey all! This week's theme for FingerFood's Theme Buffet is, appropriately, hearts! I'm really excited about this mani because I tried making stamping decals for the first time and I was pretty successful at it!

If you haven't heard of stamping decals before, there are several methods, but basically they involve using a regular stamper to make a sheet of clear polish with a stamped pattern on it that you can attach to your nail. They avoid some of the difficulties involved with stamping, like getting the stamp to line up the way you want on your nail. I followed this tutorial from heartNAT!

Here's my mani (I'm using my right hand because this decal came out a little better):

I think it turned out really cute! For my accent nail, I started with a black base (Revlon Stiletto) then created my stamping decal with Winstonia plate W102. Here's a shot of my stamper with the decal drying on it:

I used Julep Harley (the silver) for the stamping itself, then colored in the empty hearts with China Glaze Neon Flying Dragon and Zoya Amy. (It's OK if some of your coloring gets on top of the stamped outline, since this side of the decal will end up face-down on your nail.) Then I added a coat of Zoya Armor and let it dry for an hour. Finally I peeled off the decal (carefully!) with tweezers and stuck it down on my nail--wipe some acetone around the edges of your nail with a brush and that will help the decal stay in place until you topcoat it.

The only trouble I had using the decals was getting them to smooth out completely on my nail, and I got some bubbling. (I wonder if it would be better to stick them to a wet nail instead of a dry one?) It's also a very slow process unless you have multiple stampers available, so unless you're just doing accent nails, you might want to make the decals the day before you do your mani. Definitely give it a try though--the results are worth it!

Don't forget to check out the other lovely manis for this week's theme!