Tutorial: Isolating parts of stamping images

Hello!

I got a request for a tutorial showing how I stamp portions of images when I don't want the whole thing. I'm going to walk you through two examples--first, a replication of the one I did in my last post, and then I'm going to show you how to isolate one image from the center of a large image. It's the same principle in both cases, but I thought it might help to see both. :)


Okay, let's get started...here is the image I used for the manicure in the last post, the circle image on the right:

Add caption

Let's say you want to just have a row of circles coming down the top part of your nail. Pick a portion of the design that you think will work, and cover just that area with polish. I find it's best to glop it on pretty good so that it doesn't dry too quickly--now is not the time to save polish:

Cover the portion of the design you want

Next, scrape away from the center of the design, so that you don't pull the polish over any more of the design than you absolutely have to:

Scrape toward the edge of the plate, away from the rest of the design.

Pick the design up with your stamper as usual. Let's see what we have:

Oh noes!

Ugh! We got part of the design we didn't want, and a big smudge on the bottom. But do not fret, it shall be dealt with! Using the edge of your nail, gently scrape what you don't want off of the stamper. Don't worry, this will rub right off of the underside of your nail (or an orange stick, or a toothpick):

Gently scrape away what you don't want.

Okay, let's see what we're left with: 

So pristine...:)

Ah yes! Much better! We can stamp with this--so let's do it: 

Woo-hoo!

And voila! you have a lovely stamped partial image!

Okay, now let's make it a little harder. Let's say you want just the part of the image that's in the very center, like one of these lovely slices of pizza: 

Cheeky 41

Paint the part you want to get (in this case I painted the whole path to show you where we're going to scrape):

 Again, scrape in the direction that will get as little of the unwanted image as possible:

It's absolutely inevitable that you're not going to be able to scrape the polish off of the part you want without getting another part of the design, like we have here:

An extra slice of pizza isn't just bad for your waistline

So again we're going to scrape off the excess gently with the edge of our nail (or an orange stick, or a toothpick):

And again, we're left with just the part we want: 

Time to stamp: 

 And there you have it! A single piece of pizza, reporting for duty! Now seriously, how easy was that! (::wishes she had chosen to do the cake-slice image so she could now make a bad pun about how this technique is a piece of cake::)

So I hope this helped someone--thanks for reading!

Much love,
M.