Tutorial: Home-made decal nail wraps

Hello everyone!

I'm so excited today to bring you another tutorial, this time a modification of the stamped decal technique I've been meaning to try out for a few weeks now (there are many versions of this, but I believe the first one I saw was this one from Messy Mansion).

Since I started stamping, I've wanted to make stained-glass nails with a particular image on Cheeky Jumbo plate A. I've tried it various ways, but I was never fully satisfied with it until I did this skittle manicure with it:

When I saw the stamping decal method, it got me started thinking about how I could modify this technique for an all-over design, and I had to give it a try. As you can see, I was successful, at least I think so! Finally I've found a way to have rich, true color exactly where I want it on my design, and not where I don't. There are so many variations of this going through my head--all those flower images where I'd love to have the flowers filled in with different colors, just to start with--that I had to share it all with you.

I'm going to walk you through the entire procedure, although the first few steps are pretty much the same as in the regular stamped decal procedure. Just to make it fun, I'm going to make a different manicure, starting with a base of the sparkliest brown polish I own, LynBDesigns You Are The Brute Squad:

LynBDesigns You Are The Brute Squad

Note before I begin: There are several ways you can begin your decal/wrap, and all of them involve painting clear nail polish (usually topcoat) onto a surface that will let you remove the polish when it is dry. Messy Mansion did it directly on the stamper; I've also heard of it being done on Ziploc bags, page protectors, and even parchment paper. Ziploc bag was easiest for me, so that's what I'll be showing you.

Step one: Paint a generous amount of topcoat onto your surface, making it a bit larger than the image you want to stamp:

Step 2: When your swatch has dried, stamp your image on top of it. In this case, I'm using Pueen 15, and stamping with Barry M Silver Foil:

Step 3: Color in your image. You can do this with either nail polish or acrylics. I left some areas  unpainted so that my base polish could show through a little bit, but you don't have to do this. The surface that you are painting is the 'wrong' side of the wrap, and is the side you will be attaching to your nail. The other side of the wrap is the 'right' side, the side that will be visible on the nail.

This looks horrible, but this is the back of the design, not the side you'll see. :)

Step 4: Remove the polish wrap from its backing; this shouldn't be hard, and if it is, your polish probably isn't dry. I used Seche Vite, and after it had been dry for a few hours it started peeling off by itself!

Step 5: Time to put the decal on your nail. Paint your entire nail with the same topcoat you used to make your wrap. Because this is the same polish you used to make your wrap, it will react with the wrap and fuse it in place:

Step 6: This is where things get a little different from the standard decal procedure. Place the decal 'right'-side up onto your wet polish, centering the design where you want it.  Push gently down on the wrap, starting in the center of the nail and moving toward the edges (lift your finger off the wrap between presses, don't drag while pressing until you know it's locked in place, or your wrap may slide).  

Notice how much prettier the decal is now that you are seeing the 'right' side :)

As the polish starts to dry a bit more, I will even press the edges into my cuticles gently, but you don't have to do this if you don't want to: 

Step 7:  Once you have the wrap placed where you want it, take a pair of nail scissors and trim around the edges of your nail. Don't be alarmed if the edges of the wrap lift a little, that's normal. As you trim, leave the wrap a bit bigger than the nail. On my first attempt, I tried to cut the wrap very close to the size of the nail, and I cut it a bit too short, which you can't come back from. There's a better way to get rid of the edges, as you'll see, so don't make that mistake! A little too big is good. :)

Keep it a little too big rather than risking it being too small. 

This is approximately what it should look like once it's trimmed. Notice that you can see where the wrap is fused and where it's still a bit loose around the edges. That's okay. :)

Step 8: Put a layer of topcoat over the top of your wrap. Make sure this goes over the entire decal, over the cuticles.

Step 9: With whatever tool you prefer (I prefer an orange stick), push the wrap down into the cuticle, and over the top of the nail. There's no hurry here, and you may need to go around a couple of times until you get it to lie down smoothly. There will probably still be part of the decal that extends over the cuticle--that's perfect. You just want the edges of the nail to be covered, and the decal staying in place:

Step 10: Take a brush dipped in acetone, and run it around the cuticles of you nails, just like you were doing any other clean-up. This will make the excess part of the wrap dissolve, leaving you with a decal perfectly placed on your nail:

Also run the brush under the nail to get rid of any excess that you tucked under there in the previous step. :)

Step 11: Finish with another coat of topcoat, and voila! You're done and have a beautiful-looking, custom-designed nail wrap (or nail wraps) made to your exact specifications! In the pictures below, it looks like the decal got a bit wrinkled but it didn't--that's just the leaf design on the image. Check out the stained-glass wraps above and how smooth they are. :)

Here is the final product: 

I love how the base polish peeps through in my 'blank' spots. :)

UPDATE: Also, I had someone ask me if it's possible to make these ahead of time, or if you have to use the wraps right away. The stained-glass wraps I made above I actually made several days before I tried applying them--the Seche Vite squares I had made on the ziploc bag started to peel off, so I stamped and painted them and put them aside until I had a chance to try them out. So while I don't know how long before you can make them, you can definitely do it a few days before use. :)

In the above instructions, I walked you through every aspect of the technique, but if you want a more streamlined version that covers the basics you need to know and remember, I've created a collage here (reads left to right, then down):

Let me know if this was completely impossible to follow, and I will edit if needed! With all those steps, it makes it seem much more difficult than it is; it's really not hard. Try it, you'll like it!

Thanks for taking a look. :) Hugs and love,
M.