Saturday, March 9, 2013

A Pot O' Gold for SIX cents!


This little guy on my right hand is
almost grown out. Lucky me!
Have you seen products for sale out there like nail tattoos,
transfers, and even the newsprint kit I saw in the mall? Tutorials and products on blogs and Pinterest had me curious! I did a lot of "window shopping" comparing techniques, results, and prices.

I like the tattoo and transfer products and the look of the newsprint transfers, as well.  Even though those are backward when you transfer them, and that tends to make me twitch.... 

But I find the selection to be somewhat limited. I kept thinking it would be cool to design my own! It turns out that you can transfer color ink from laser copiers with rubbing alcohol!

 I started thinking. And scheming. And rubbing my hands together like the evil genius in a movie...*insert evil chuckle here*

 So... would you like to design your own nail transfers? I'll walk you through the basics...

How to make your own transfers:
Pot o' Gold on my
 Big ol' Thumb!
1) Pick a theme! Superhero, Holiday, Flowers, Camo, emoticons, your Zodiac sign. Whatever floats your boat. 

2) Find some clip art! or Google some images. For print you'll use a tiny font... 7-9 pt range. my pot of gold image was about a 1/4" square. The rainbows were 3/4"x 1 1/2". Keep in mind my thumbnail is huge. You may want to go smaller. 

3) I manipulated my images in Word, because that's what I have. The first time I squished as many on there as possible. Leaving no room for holding the paper to position it. Round Two, I left margins for that reason. 

4) Check out your print settings, looking for a mirror option, a setting for iron on transfers will flip the image. If you can't do it on your own printer, no worries. Print it normally. 

5) If you have a laser printer and were able to flip the image you are good to go! Otherwise, take your page to your copy center. Ask them to reverse your print if you didn't do it. You are looking at a whopping price tag of about 6-12 cents (US). You can easily print enough images and words for several manicures on one sheet of 8 1/2 x 11" paper. For. Six. Cents. 

I found MY pot of gold!
How to transfer: 
1) Cut out your designs, leaving a small tab to hold on to for positioning. See the spacing on my lucky lucky lucky index finger and you will understand the need for a tab. 

2) Apply a base coat. I did 2 coats of a creamy white, for full opacity. Let dry completely.

3) Soak your first nail in rubbing alcohol for about 15 seconds.

4) Carefully place your tiny picture or little word. If the paper doesn't look completely wet, dab on a drop of alcohol with another finger. Press it firmly in place, being careful not to move it around. 

5) Wait about 15 seconds. Peek. See if you need to re-wet the paper and press again. 

6) Repeat on as many nails as you'd like!

7) Make sure you topcoat for durability! maybe like this?


*Heart my nails* - Heather 

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