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nail plates: 101

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i have been getting questions about these nail plates i use via email, text, and facebook, so i decided to throw together a little tutorial for you!

first things first, you'll need to get yourself a stamper, a blade, and some nail plates. i recommend Amazon for the best prices(here and here), but some mall kiosks sell them, as well as Sally's Beauty Supply store. 

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i am using Konad plate m73 and China Glaze "for audrey".
the nail plates will come with a thin film of plastic over the top. make sure you peel this off and throw it away. yeah that might sound silly to say (like, duh everyone knows that), but i was asked this question and so i wanted to address it :) ...once you have everything, then we can get started!

step 1: paint your nails (aka give them a basecoat for you your design)

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i am doing something simple, and am just going to stamp my ring fingers this time. so the white is really my only "basecoat" here. let dry.

before we do begin the actual "stamping" process, there some things you need to be aware of. when my sister-in-law and i first bought these plates, we were so stinking excited to try them out. we came home and started using them....and got so frustrated that they weren't working! we were so mad and thought we had just wasted our money. not a fun moment. but we kept trying and found out that:
it takes practice. this might sound so funny because we're talking nails here, like it should be the easiest thing ever, but trust me, it takes practice to use that stamper.
in order for the design to work better/look better/be seen (however you want to say it) you need to use a thicker nail polish. we found that using any Sally Hansen or Wet n Wild brand works awesome. the best part is it's cheap, so you don't have to go out and buy a "special" expensive brand of polish just to do this! today however, the "for audrey" China Glaze works awesome. some work better than others. sometimes you just have to experiment.
3 it dries fast. meaning, you have to work fast.

keep those things in mind and continue...

step 2: paint over the nail plate design of your choice, with your polish

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step 3: scrape off excess polish

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sometimes you might have to do 2 scrapes to get all of it, but remember to hurry, because the polish left sitting there(embedded in the design) is going to dry fast. at least faster than you think.

step 4: stamp the plate

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(oh look, my first moving pic! ha ha)
a key to this part = press HARD and ROLL. it helps to grab all of the design. when Lins and I first did this we were stamping-straight up and down-thinking that was all it took. nope. remember to press hard and roll! you should be able to see your whole design on the stamper when you bring it up:

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if it's not all there as you'd like, try again (after wiping your stamper clean)

step 5: stamp the design on your nail

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using that same technique (pressing hard and rolling), apply to nail! (thanks goes to the hubs for snapping this yesterday...even though he didn't want to. ha ha)

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yay! that's it. now go give it a try!

*have you used nail plates before?

*what's your favorite plate, or one you'd like to have?
well i love them all, but the one i wish i had right now is the chevron one, BM201 (found in this set)

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