Let me tell you about the time I tried to get into stamping. I went to a "Stampin' Up" party, and we made a couple Christmas cards. I was pretty darn horrible at it. My stamps were crooked... or there was more ink on one side of the stamp than the other.. or it smeared... I was a scrapbooker, though! Couldn't all scrappers stamp, too?? Was there something wrong with me? I pretty much gave up stamping then (I'm not one of those "if at first you don't succeed, try try again" people. I'm more of a "if I can't get it the first time, clearly I'm not supposed to be able to do this" kind of person.) Over the years, I have acquired some stamps. And I have done some stamping, but I'm not gonna lie... I'm still not very good at it.
So, when my friend Laura posted on my Facebook and asked if I'd tried "stamping nail art" before... Um, wait, whaaat?? Stamping my nails?! I can't even stamp a card nevermind a small, vulnerable space such as my nail beds! It must be impossible! I could never!
But, never one to pass up a new nail trend, I decided to research it some. I read reviews, blogs, watched YouTube videos, and searched eBay and Amazon. Girls who could never do nail art said it was easy. Pictures of perfect nails done on the first try.
I. Must. Do. This.
Now, anyone who has looked into stamping nail art before can tell you that the big company on the market is "Konad" (which I believe is a Korean company?) They are the ones that invented the metal plates that have the little designs cut out... you put the special polish over the design, scrape it off, roll it on to the stamper, roll the stamper on your nail--BLAM! Perfect nail art. (or so they say:) Since Konad is the top dog in the industry, their prices are a little... well, pricey. Thankfully, there have been several knock off companies ("fauxnad" fake Konad) to come out and make their own steel-plated designs. The most popular one seems to be Bundle Monster and you can get about 21 plates (6 or so designs per plate) for about $17.99. There are a lot of good reviews for them and they seem to be as good if not better than the Konad for the price. There's also a company called "Shany" that has a 25 plate set (6-10 designs per plate) and currently on sale at Amazon for $14.99! I did not read as many reviews for theirs compared to Bundle Monster, but I figured it's more designs AND less money AND I could do my own review:)
So, ladies and gentlemen, I am now embarking on a stamping nail art adventure. I ordered the Shany 2012 stamp set, the Konad double ended stamper and scraper (most reviews said the Konad one really was best. And having the double end gives the smaller side for smaller designs and the larger side for whole nail designs) $3.00, and the Konad Princess Special Polish in gold black $4.42 (apparently some polishes work for stamping and some don't. The consistency needs to be a little thicker and gloopier than regular polishes--kind of like polishes that are old and getting yucky So I'm starting with one Konad one; but I'll try a bunch of other cheaper polishes to see if I can get them to work). The grand total with shipping came up to $30.34. However, I had remaining money on an Amazon gift card, so the only money I had out of pocket was $.69! What a bargain!
I got the standard shipping so it'll still be at least 3-5 business days before I see anything, so I'll write more about all this when it arrives!
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