Friday, April 22, 2016

FULL NAIL WATER DECALS

Yesterday I took the hummingbird window feeders out of the closet. I debated whether or not I should hang them yet, but the migration map seems to show the little cuties showing up a little earlier than last year in some places. I decided I'd wash them and made up a batch of nectar for them. 

While that cooled down, I washed the windows and searched around the deck hoping I'd find the suction cup that went missing at the end of last summer. No luck there. Luckily when I bought my mom her first window feeder as a Christmas gift, I bought one for myself, too. I absolutely need to have three window feeders.

It was starting to get dark out when I finally filled them and hung them up. And so begins the obsessive window watching, waiting for my first sighting. One thing about having these feeders, I'm pretty sure I have spectacular peripheral vision. I see every little movement at those windows. I really hope the birds show up sooner than last year.

When I finished up with the pink flower nail foils, I decided to use a set of water decals that I bought many months ago.
Cult El Porto, water decals
I did one coat of Cult El Porto. The white base definitely was necessary to show off the decal colors. I was pretty happy with these decals. I've had them so long that I don't remember what website I bought them from. There was a bit of a learning curve, and I did manage to damage the first decal as I tried to move it around on my left thumb.

After making that mistake, I didn't really have any more problems. I found that as long as I didn't try to slide them around, it was very easy to lift them off to move them if I needed to. That was a good thing because the set came with exactly ten.

When I added topcoat, the excess decal that was hanging off the edge at the tip pretty much melted away, and cleanup around the rest of the nail went very easily using non-acetone.

I'm kind of obsessed with full coverage water decals right now. I'm looking forward to using some of the floral ones that I bought, but I need to wait until they get to me from Ali Express.

I think I left these on for 5 or 6 days, and I have to say they held up pretty well. It's fun to use something like these just to change things up once in awhile. Lately I've been uninspired when it comes to colors for stamping manicures. Having things like decals and foils to play with gives me a little bit of motivation.

What keeps you motivated when it comes to mani ideas? I see so many gorgeous, intricate stamping manicures, but some of them look like they took forever. Back when I first started doing my nails, it wouldn't have bothered me to spend all day doing something on my nails; now I just don't want anything I do to take that long.

I bought the Uber mat and have purchased plates that would be good for doing decals, but they are so involved. I made a half-assed attempt one night awhile back, but as soon as the decal dried, it curled up horribly and was unusable. I haven't tried since. 

Maybe this weekend I'll try again. So if you hear swearing and don't know where it's coming from, it'll probs be me.



3 comments:

  1. As a base for a decal... use Wet N Wild clear. It will not curl, crack or yellow. It will stay flexible for months!

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  2. Wow there amazing 😊😊

    ReplyDelete