Tutorial Tuesday: Mirror Image Stamping Trick

I promised this tutorial more than a month ago and I'm really ashamed that it took this long, but I'll spare you the excuses. You can actually thank my boyfriend for motivating me to finally find the time to put this together. He started bugging me and asking me why I have not done something I promised to all my lovely readers. He even insinuated that I would never hit 1000 followers unless I got this done. Sheesh! Well I'm really, really, really thrilled to have reached 1000 followers last night and I got this done to boot! I can't even tell you how excited I am right now. Thank you everyone who reads my babble, follows this blog and takes the time to comment. You are certainly my motivation to keep this going. :D

Before I get to the tutorial, I want to point out that this assumes you already know how to stamp. If you do not, there are a lot of wonderful tutorials online. One I always like to recommend is the Getting a Good Stamp Image tutorial from soguesswhat11.

This tutorial is based on the emerald manicure which had one hand mirroring the other. I'm going to show you the trick I use to do that without having mirror image stamps available. Now on to the tutorial... 

Supplies

• Zip-lock (or any plastic) bag
• Polishes: Clear polish, base color and stamping polish
• Stamping supplies (Stamp/stamper/scraper)
• Cuticle nippers
• Cleanup brush & nail polish remover

Steps
Click on the image to zoom in...

Instructions

1. Using clear nail polish, paint rectangles slightly larger than the nail.
   - Allow the strips to dry for a few hours.
   - I make make these ahead of time and allow them to dry overnight so they are dry enough to peel off easily
2. Stamp the desired image on to the clear polish strip
   - I'm using Mash plate Mash-46
3. Using tweezers, gently peel the strips off the plastic bag
4. Apply desired number of base color coats.
   - I'm using two coats of Ulta Green with Envy followed by one coat of Barielle Budda-Ful
5. Stamp directly onto the nail for the nails you want to have the image as it appears on the stamping plate.
   - For example, I stamp the nails on my left hand directly from the plate onto the nail (as shown above on my index finger)
6. For the nails you want the mirror image, apply a coat of clear polish and allow it to get sticky, but not completely dry. Flip the stamped nail polish strip with the stamped side down and apply it to the sticky nail, as shown above on my middle finger. Smooth out any bubbles.
7. Using cuticle nippers, trim off the excess nail polish around the nail.
8. If there is any nail polish remaining that needs to be removed, you can clean it further using a brush and acetone/nail polish remover. For detailed information on how to do this, you can take a look at my clean-up tutorial.
9. Add a topcoat and you are done! 

I hope I have succeeded in making a clear tutorial on the technique I use. If something does not make sense, please don't hesitate to ask questions.

I'd love to know what you think of this!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)