Stamping Sunday: A Parrot Nail Experiment

Today's blog post is not my most glamourous (the stamping is not so good!), but I wanted to share with you my first experience with a clear jelly stamper. I will admit straight away this is not one of the originals. I got it for a couple of pounds on eBay, but I wanted to try out the concept before paying for one to be shipped all the way from America! I'm very keen to try the layering stamping plates available, but so far the only ones that are my sort of style are the Christmas ones, so think I will have to wait a little!

So, first impressions, the stamper head is quite firm (I usually use a non-sticky marshmallow stamper) but still has a little squish to it (some firm ones don't have much give, so I'm glad this is still quite squishy). I've read you don't have to buff these, and sure enough the stamping worked straight away, no buffing/ prep required.

The stamping plate I used was Tropical plate Collection 06 from Mo You. The designs on here are gorgeous and I can't wait to use more of them in the summer with some really bright colours. My colour inspiration here was taken from a beautiful red parrot design by Nailicious, you can see her original design here. It's a beautiful freehand design so mine is not in the same league, but the colours and patterns inspired me so thought I'd try it out with my new stamper. Below is the stamping plate and a view through the clear stamper. I was so impressed with how well it picked up the images without any buffing at all.


Though the image picked up well I actually found placement a little harder with this stamper. I think it's just a case of practise, but because I'd got used to lining up the images with my nails using normal stampers, trying to place the design looking through the end of the stamper was tricky! I kept automatically going to look at the stamper head instead. Below is the final look, as you can see the placement is a little off!


All in all despite my difficulties I'm really glad I've bought this. With practise it will allow me to do some fab layered stamping designs, and hopefully make precision easier once I get used to it. The thing I'm most impressed with though is it's quality as a general stamper, it picked up the images perfectly almost every time and didn't require any prep. It also didn't feel delicate as I've heard the clear ones can be. This is definitely the texture of stamper head I want to work with going forwards. If only there was somewhere to test them!

Colours Used: Dead Heat - Barry M, Black Knight - Mo You