Nail Stamping Decal Tutorial Featuring Uberchic Beauty Uber Mat

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It's no secret that I am a HUGE fan of Uberchic Beauty.  I have a number of there plates and reach for them constantly.  So you can only imagine my excitement levels when my lovely delivery lady dropped of the most amazing Uberchic package last week.  Not only did I receive some of the new plates (which I will be doing some reviews of over the next week or two) but I also received the Uber Mat!!!!

Image from Uberchic Beauty website

For those of you who may not know what the Uber Mat is let me give you a brief run down.  It's an awesome flexible mat that you can test colours on, stamp on, make decals (which I have a tutorial for in this post), really there is so many different things.  Best part of all, you can clean it all up with pure acetone.  How cool is that?  It's definitely going to save me a lot of mess.

My first use of the Uber Mat without question, had to be a stamping decal (or reverse stamping).  Now I have been trying to make these for what seems like forever and I always struggle.  I end up with cracked decals, images that don't transfer on the nails properly...really it has been a technique that I had nearly given up on.  Until now....

Things you'll need:
*  An Uber Mat
* Stamper and scraper (I used my rectangle squishy stamper from Messy Mansion and an old gift card)
*  A stamping plate (I used Uberchic plate 5-02)
*  Stamping polish (I used Konad Black)
*  A clear top coat (I used OPI Top Coat)
*  Polishes of your choice to fill in your design (I used China Glaze Bottoms Up, Son Of A Peach and That's Shore Bright)
*  A small brush or dotting tool (I used a Winstonia #00 brush)
* Tweezers

Step by step instructions:
1.  Paint a layer of clear top coat on the Uber Mat.  It can be anywhere on the mat.  I chose to do it on the nail shapes as a guide for how big I needed to make my decal.

2.  Stamp you desired image onto the top coated section.  I did this both when the top coat was slightly tacky and when it was dry and didn't find a difference in how the image transferred.

3.  Fill in your image with you choice of colours.

4.  After about 10-20 mins add a layer of top coat and allow to dry fully.  Paint your nails the desired base colour while you are waiting for your decal to dry.  I used OPI Alpine Snow as my base.

5.  After you have allowed you decal to full dry (I have seen people use timeframes from one hour to overnight - I left mine for about four hours) gently lift up your decal from the mat with you tweezers.  They should left quite easily but just make sure you do it gently and slowly to avoid breaking your decal.

6.  Now the next part it up to you.  You can either trim down your decal to fit you nail or you can leave it as in, apply it to the nail and then clean up.  I tried both ways and it didn't effect how the decal applied.  Only the clean up time.

To apply the decal, paint a thin layer of top coat onto your base colour.  Whilst the top coat is still tacky, position the decal on the nail and lightly press down to smooth out the decal and make sure it sticks to the nail.  Clean up any excess parts of the decal, add top coat and you are done.

I know my mani isn't perfect (I put some creases in my decals when I placed them on my nails) but I am so happy with how it turned out.  This is definitely the best stamping decal mani I have ever done and I owe it all to the Uber Mat.  You can bet that I will be practice more stamping decals in the future.

The Uber Mat is currently in stock and is available from Uberchic Beauty.  It has sold out before so definitely grab one (and some plates) while you can.