Digit-al Dozen Does NEW & Improved; Day 1

It's Digit-al Dozen week!  This months theme is New & Improved which is something nail related never tried before or something nail related that may have been done in the past but is improved (hopefully!)  The great thing is that it is open to our own personal interpretation so there will probably be a lot of variety in all the ladies this month. Speaking of the ladies, we have some exciting news within the group!  There are several new Digit-al Dozen ladies starting this month; Cathy from More Nail Polish, Michaela of The Mani Cafe, Cheyenne of CBD Nails, RoseLynn of Manicured & Marvelous and Marisa from Polish Those Nails. We also had some sad news as we also said goodbye to other members in the last month or so who have moved on for a variety of reasons; Emily of The Lacquerologist (who has started a new blog, Casual Contrast), Victoria of Vic and Her Nails, Hannah of The Dalai Lamas Nails, and Kirsten of Geeky Owl. While it is always sad to see ladies leave and we wish them well, the upside is we welcome new members who are super talented to inspire and challenge us!

This is what I came up with!

Started with a base of three coats of Noodles Polish Resolutions; this is shown with no top coat.

Added a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC before applying decals and stamping.

I made stamper decals using an image from Moyra Stamping Plate 05-Vintage.  This is where "improved" comes into play for a couple reasons.  First of all, while I've shrunk stamped images using the stamper method, my recent stamper purchase from UberChic makes is oh, so much easier!  Using the Luxe Stamper, shrinking decals is a breeze!  Simply stamp the image as regular, but when you take the stamper head out of the holder and then use it, it shrinks in size all on its own! No distortion or any other effort required!  The bird image that I had picked out would not have fit on my nails without shrinking; heck, even with shrinking, the bird hardly fits. But it certainly does help.  Overall, the stamper shrink method using the stamper makes larger images more practical for those with smaller nails.  So what I did here was stamped the birds, regular for the one bird, then double stamped onto another stamper to get the reversed image.  This took a few attempts to get the right mix of stampers that would allow the double stamping while still allowing the transference but with some trial and error, I was able to do it. 

I also have another new trick for stamper decals.  This might be old news to some of you, but new to me; I've been doing it for about a month now and it is soooo much better for stamper decal making.  You probably have to be living under a rock to not know about the UberChic Uber mat.  I ordered one as soon as they were first available.  One of the benefits of the stamper mat was to make decals right on the mat. While I tried this method, it just isn't my favourite way of making decals; I much prefer the old school way of making the decal on stamper heads for a variety of reasons.  Those who do make stamper decals on the UberChic mat will know that you place a clear coat on the mat then fill it in then transfer the decal to your nails.  I tried a variety of products for this with varying degrees of success but one of the better products was Sally Hansen Hard as Nails, which was suggested by CopyCat Claws.  Now for making stamper decals, I've always used Seche Vite to coat my painted decal but it is very rigid and on the thick side so have had varying degrees of success in applying it.  I thought if the Sally Hansen Hard as Nails worked for the decal on the mat, it might work as the clear to top the stamper decal so tried it!  It is so much better!  It isn't nearly as thick so it does make it a little flimsier to peel off the stamper head so you have to be more careful, but the upside is that it sits so much nicer on the nail and the clear isn't all thick and create visible end lines or wrinkles like Seche did, making it an overall better eye appealing decal on your nail. So these two items are an improvement for me, which qualifies them for the purpose of the theme this month!

For the decals, I used Funky Fingers Dark Knight as the stamping polish, then acrylic paints to fill.  The branch was a little short on each nail so extended using MdU 23.

Moyra Stamping Plate 05 - Vintage

Added tree branches using an image from Wistonia Hunters Life with MdU 23.

Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC to finish.

Here's the other hand; I did same branch stamping but no decals.

Here's the other ladies Day 1 manis!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!