Before & After and Tutorial: Multi-colored stamping

Hello and Happy Easter!

Multi-color stamping, or using several colors on the same stamp at the same time, is one of the basic techniques every stamper should know--it's easy, and the results are fun. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to show you how easy this technique can be, while showing you my Easter manicure. :)

I started off with Barielle Peach Popsicle, a lovely soft peach creme:

Barielle Peach Popsicle

 

Barielle Peach Popsicle

I decided to transform this lovely into Easter eggs, so I pulled out Winstonia 212, to use along with Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime, Brisk Blue, and Lively Lilac. To do the stamping, I put a generous stripe of each of the three colors over the lines of decoration of the stamping image. Normally when you stamp, you can get away with only putting polish over half of the design, and then scraping the polish into the rest of the image, if you want to save polish. But I've found that for this technique, it's best to paint across the whole portion of the design; that way when you scrape, there is less risk that you'll get the wrong color in the wrong place:

Cover the area you want with the color you want for that area

Next, scrape in the direction that preserves your color best. What I mean is, in this case if you put your stamper below the green stripe and scrape toward the edge of the plate, you will risk getting bleed from the green into the blue, and the blue into the lilac; so instead, you want to place your scraper on the side where the three stripes all end, and scrape up in the same direction that the stripes go. That will minimize bleeding.

Then, pick up your image and stamp onto your nails as you normally would:

My nails after they've just been stamped, with no clean up and lots of animal hair. How does it get there no matter how much I clean my tools???

I wanted a little extra bling for this manicure, and I happen to have Milani holo toppers in matching colors, so I put a little of each onto my plate, and with a dotting tool, I went over the dots in the manicure:

I use my plate as a palette, since it's there anyway. :)

And here is my final mani, cleaned up, blinged out, and defurred (mostly, sigh...):

Happy Easter!

There you have it--if you like the look of multiple colors in a stamping image but have been hesitant to try it, it really is just that easy. Let me know if you'd like me to make a pinnable tutorial graphic. :)

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday!
M.