Week 1 is RED - and here's what I came up with! This is a new to me technique of foil stamping and this will not be my last attempt at it!! Take a look after the jump for more pics & info on the nails and the challenge.
Here is the breakdown of the weekly prompt, and I will do my best to keep up. I'm hoping to do the posts on Sundays, I'm just starting off on a different day because I just found out about it belatedly and already had nail arts to share over the weekend.
For my base I went with 1 coat of SH Insta Dri Night Fright, and red foil on the pinkie nail.
This was my first time using foil, and I really should have used a red undercoat before applying it. I didn't realize it would be a bit patchy, but I don't think it shows too bad. I just grabbed a random red polish on my desk and dotted in the few bald spots to cover it up. On top of the black I added a coat of SH 18k Gold - it's actually a nail hardener, but I really wanted the golden flakies to add more complexity to the black. I ended up regretting it in the end, but it's always live and learn! Black and red are pretty classy on their own ;)
The foil turned out so blingy!! This was just a random roll on clearance at KMart that ended up costing $.74 and I used up most of it while practicing to get the stamping right. Well worth it, and I now need more foils!!
The lightbox really dampens the shine, but shows the gold flakies more. And if you're not familiar with what's on my ring finger - that's the Game of Thrones Targeryen sigil. I am a GoT fan and with the new season coming up soon, I'm wanting to make more manis!
The sigil is stamped from Myonline Shop plate JR-02 - it's a great plate with a couple of different fandoms. The dragon scales are from a Messy Mansion plate MM21.
Now the secret to the foiling! I learned this by watching YouTube, of course, and stalking a couple of fellow nail artists to see what tips and tricks they have.
Step 1 - prep the foil; this is done by wiping the back of it with polish remover. This is supposedly done to take off the protective layer what works with foil glue but doesn't work with polish. I haven't tried skipping this step to test it, as I didn't have much foil on my roll.
Step 2 - Stamp your design like normal, I used MdU Reddish, as it doesn't dry out super fast and allows me time to stick the foil on.
Step 3 - press firmly and make sure you get the edges of the nail. I thought I'd put extra effort into it, to make sure it transferred -and used an orange stick to rub it on top. In my trials I actually ended up with excess foil in places I had no stamped design, I think just from the sheer pressure I was applying. So I had to back it off and be gentler, but still firm. Again, just like applying foil to the whole nail, there will be patches. I just stuck the foil back on and that usually covered up whatever I missed the first time around. I guess it's important to have the polish color match the foil, so the gaps aren't as glaringly obvious!
Step 4 - Topcoat. Again, as this is my first foiling experience, I'm not an expert, but just from seeing/reading about it, I learned that topcoat either kills the shine or makes the foil crack. Using some special topcoats (like Picture Polish Revolution, which I don't own) or a gel (the kind that needs to be cured) worked to preserve the foil look. I reached for the most gel-like thing I own that isn't gel, and it worked for me! It's Gelous (found at Sally's) - and after it dried, I put Seche Vite on it.
Sorry about the rambling post, I am just really excited that I was able to take my stamping to the next level and it actually turned out good! It's not perfect, but for my first try, I am still very pleased!
I have Stamping Saturday and the second - orange- prompt planned already, so come back on the weekend to see those!
No comments:
Post a Comment