I am still a beginner, but I did a small nail stamping tutorial.

I thought you might like to see a visual of the process of nail stamping.

Bear in mind, I have only done this a few times so I am still practicing myself! I use this Konad stamp and scraper set and the design I used today is from this Shany set.

For this tutorial I did some whole nail stamps.

Here is a pic of the double ended stamper: http://i.imgur.com/rtbZ8Cl.jpg [3] There is a small end for the little picture designs and the large end is for the whole nail stamps or large picture designs.

The scraper which I have not cleaned very well: http://i.imgur.com/H9zbUI1.jpg [4]

This is the plate and design I chose for today's look: http://i.imgur.com/TdDYvVp.jpg [5]

I will be using the fat end of the stamper for the whole nail design. http://i.imgur.com/Vuq2lot.jpg [6]

First you do your nails like normal, I used an Essie base coat, three coats of Sephora by OPI Havana Nights, and Seche Vite to top it off. Even with the quick dry top coat you want to let it sit for a bit and dry well so that you don't squish your polish around when using the stamper. Here is my base: http://i.imgur.com/aVfgrVe.jpg [7]

For the design you want to use a nice opaque polish so that the stamper picks it up easily and it shows up well on your nail. Black, white, and silver work well but I recently started experimenting with other colors I have in my collection just to see what happens. I like Sally Hansen Insta-Dri line for the designs, they are very opaque and have worked well. The silver is particularly good. (and they are inexpensive!)

I picked this hot pink Ulta polish to use tonight because I thought the color would be nice with the light blue base coat. I was not sure if it was opaque enough but it did ok. http://i.imgur.com/sLtNs6s.jpg [8]

While it looks fine on the nails, it was a piss poor color choice for this tutorial because it matched the stamp color exactly. http://i.imgur.com/IjJHk83.jpg [9] Derp. This was a bad choice because you can't see the polish when it is on the stamp so I could not show you what it looked like once I stamped the plate. Plus it helps to be able to see the polish on the stamp itself so that you can properly line up the design on the nail. I told you I was a beginner. I had already committed to the color in my head so I just kept going despite my poor choice.

You take your design color and paint over the design on the plate that you have chosen like so: http://i.imgur.com/phIWNzW.jpg [10]

Cover it completely: http://i.imgur.com/kWsxkK0.jpg [11]

Then you take your scraper and scrape it across the plate at a 45 degree angle, removing all the excess polish. http://i.imgur.com/988kHqC.jpg [12]

After scraping it should look like this: http://i.imgur.com/GBitjNg.jpg [13]

Next you take your stamper, line it up so that it will cover the whole design, and roll it firmly across the polish on the plate. The rubber will pick up a layer of the polish: http://i.imgur.com/5V3iFix.jpg [14]

Then line the stamper up with your nail and roll it firmly across your nail to deposit the design on top of your base color. http://i.imgur.com/MKJLQjD.jpg [15]

I took pics in between just to show you but you want to move from step to step quickly so that the polish does not dry on you before you are done.

With the whole nail designs you will get some of the design on your skin that will need to be cleaned up after. Here is the first nail: http://i.imgur.com/MKJLQjD.jpg [RES ignored duplicate image][16]

Here is the left hand before cleanup: http://i.imgur.com/ajVV9OD.jpg [17]

You can use a Q tip or a nail polish remover pen to clean most of it up. Left hand after a quick clean: http://i.imgur.com/KDOyvrW.jpg [18]

If you have any questions let me know! It is fun to experiment to see what looks good with what, but there is definitely some trial and error to the process and finding what polish works best for the design. I know Konad makes polishes specifically for stamping but I have mostly been using what I had in my stash already with decent success.

EDIT: Fixed links to specific items I am using.