Pueen 2013 Stamping Plates Collection

Last month I won a giveaway Cazzy from SpecialGirl Nails was hosting - YAY!.  The prize was a $50 gift certificate from any online store of my liking - I choose Amazon because I was drooling over this plates.
Ordered them from my aunt's Amazon account because they had "prime shipping".  I thought the "prime" thing was just to save on shipping, but apparently it speeds it too.  I ordered on Thursday night and they where delivered on Wednesday next week.

The 2013 Collection includes 25 plates that come in this cute orange storage case.  

Each plate comes with a protective blue film cover.  I prefer plates with a colored protective film; this way people that are new to stamping notice that they need to remove it before using the plates.  When a plate is covered with a clear film, you can barely notice it.

Plates without protective film

 

backing of the plates with Pueen's logo

Clear shot of individual plates

You can see the designs on this plates are very well engraved.

I used this two plates for an AIS Challenge, the theme was to stamp over lilac.

Here are the results of my very first time using the plates.  I didn't even made random test stamps, so this was my absolutely first experience.  The first plate to try was 01.  The first stamps didn't came out so well because I was trying to scrape from different angles & directions until I found the right one.  In my experience, the right angle & direction to scrape can vary from design to design.  The accent nails came out great!

Base is Essie Lilacism, stamped with Color Club Wild at Heart, China Glaze Escaping Reality.

My impressions:

- Love the storage & display case!  If you own a vast collection of plates, another case might not be practical; but I only had the Bundle Monster, Salon Express & some randoms from Born Pretty Store  (which are stored in a ziplock bag - I know, shame!)  If Pueen decided to sell this case separately it would be a hit.  Each plate is stored in a clear nylon sheet, which is super convenient because not only you can have them neatly stored in order, but you can browse the design without having to take them out of lil' pocket.

- It is a little bit difficult to take the plates out of the nylon sheet, they are quite snugged in there.  I'm on the fence with this - it requires a slight pull to get them out, but I would hate them to be loose and falling out of the sheet; which is what happened with my BM plates when I put them on baseball card holders.

-  The borders of the plates are very smooth, so +1 for safety!

- Each plate includes 4 big images and 2 small ones (150 images total).  There are no french tip designs, which I rarely care for.

-  The set includes a great selection of designs including geometrical shapes, flowery and abstract patters, hearts, starts, animal prints, single flowers and even fruits!  The small designs are very cute and nicely compliment the big ones.

- The full nail designs are big enough to cover the width of my hole thumb.  With the Bundle Monster & Salon Express I have to do the trick of squeezing the stamper from the sides to make the design wider; which almost never comes out right.

I have a lot more designs to try, but so far I am loving this collection.  I'm really happy that I got them!

Thanks to Cazzy & Pueen Cosmetics for making me a Happy Stamp-a-holic!

AIS Challenge: Easter

Last night while deleting old files, found a couple pictures misplaced on a random folder (so me!)
I'm not proud of how this mani came out, but thought of sharing it anyway; cause fail manicures suck but hey, they happen!  This was my submition to the AIS Easter challenge.  I don't own any Easter themed plates, so this design on bm-211 that looked like lil' eggs was my immediate choice.

  

What I Used

Sinful Colors Snow Me White (base)

pink, blue, green, yellow & white acrylic paints

Kleancolor Metallic Fushcia, Aqua & Green (middle finger)

No name silver glitter (middle finger)

Bundle Monster BM-211 & 219

Dotting tool

AIS Challenge: Stamp Over Orange

The theme for April 7th challenge on AIS was to stamp over orange.
When it comes to stamping I rarely end totally satisfied with the final results but this time, I couldn't love this manicure more!  It looks like a sari :)

What I used:

China Glaze Roguish Red (base)

Sally Hansen ColorQuick Fast-Dry pen in gold (stamp)

Sinful Colors Endless Blue

Bundle Monster plate BM-203

blue rhinestones

gold sequins

striping tape

 and a shot of  Roguish Red - cause I loooove it! :)

AIS Challenge: Spring Flowers

There was so many stuff I didn't post during the Holidays that now I'm way behind posting my recent ones, ugh! but I'm almost catching up.

This AIS challenge was for the week before Easter, the theme was spring flowers.  To kill two birds with the same shot, I decided to stamp over a previous manicure.  In my mind, stamping with black was a good idea, and in person it look ok; but it didn't translate that way in pictures; should have stamp all nails with white.

Still, was a good experience because I got to experiment stamping with white and use different plates.
On my thumb I used a stamp image intended for french manicures, then I mirrored it to cover the entire nail.  That was kind of neat! :D

What I used:

- to see the polishes used to create the gradient click here

Sinful Colors Snow me White & Kleancolor Metallic Black [stamping]

Bundle Monster plates 205 & 218

My first participation on AIS challanges

I recently joined the group Adventures in Stamping on facebook.  They do a poll to choose the theme for each weeks challenge.  The challenges are posted on Sundays but during the week members can share their stamping creations or any info related to stamping.

During my first week in the group, the theme was A plate ending in 6.
I took advantage of the pink gradient I was already wearing and stamped using Bundle Monster 206 and 216.

Butterfly ring from Charlote Russe :)