Holographic Butterflies - Tutorial

OK people, thank you so much for all your wonderful comments on the holographic butterflies, I got the message that you do want a tutorial loud and clear, so I'll just get right into it.

Let me say that this is seriously easy.  When you see what it is you will think, "Is that all!" Anyone with a printer will be able to create nails like these, because it really is very simple and quick to do!

First up, what is the product?  The paper that my designs are printed onto is Temporary Tattoo Paper.  I bought mine off eBay.  If you search eBay for "Temporary Tattoo Paper" you will find a few suppliers.

The supplier I bought mine off has a very good video about how to get your tattoo paper ready. You can check out that video here.  But in simple terms, the tattoo paper comes in two sheets. One white sheet with a glossy side that you print your design on, and another sheet which is a piece of white paper with transparent film on the other side.  After you've printed on your first piece of paper, you let it dry, and then separate the second piece of transparency from the paper and stick them together.  Seriously, watch that video, it only goes for two and half minutes and it shows how to prep your tattoo paper perfectly.

So here is my first sheet of designs I did up.  As you can see there are lots of different sized and coloured butterflies. I just found a butterfly image on google images and then fiddled with the hue and saturation in Photoshop to get all the different coloured butterflies, but keeping them all a consistent design.

There is also some old English names printed (my husband has real tattoos like this with mine and the kids names, and Mr 3 thinks it's really fun to have matching temporary tattoos as dad).  You can also see gaps where I have already cut out designs.

For this tutorial, I' m just going to do some small butterflies.  In the last design, I used the large butterflies, cut in half with partial wing designs on each finger, as well as the accent nail which was the collection of little butterflies (despite the fact that the little butterflies look like the Sally Hansen butterflies, they are completely home made).  I will be applying the purple butterfly to my thumb, and then applying the red and green butterflies, cut in half on each of the other nails in the video below.

First, start off with you base colour.  I used a layer of Orly Bonder base coat and two coats of Layla Mercury Twilight on all nails (actually only on the left hand, you will see later that my right hand is still the previous design - yes I'm still wearing it!)

So here is the little butterfly that I printed and put together using the temporary tattoo paper. I trim it closely around the design, but it doesn't have to be perfect.

Next you peel off the plastic covering to expose the sticky side of the tattoo.

Now just stick that image straight onto your nail. Make sure you place it correctly, because you wont be able to move it around like a water decal.  It is just like sticking down a sticker. Press it firmly and rub it outwards gently to ensure there are no creases.

Grab a cotton ball or wipe and dip it in some water. Hold the water against the nail for 10-20 seconds.

The piece of paper will now just slide off.

And now your design has been transferred.  You can clean up any parts of the tattoo that overhang your nail edge or at your cuticle with a bit of polish remover (or trim with scissors).

Then put on some top coat and you're done.  The tattoo, once it is applied and no longer has paper on either side, is actually very stretchy.  This means that it can be easily smoothed onto the nail and it doesn't form any creases.  That is the problem that I have with water decals.  Water decals are great for small images, but these temporary tattoos are perfect for all over nail designs.

Now I did record this rather dreadful video.  I've said it before, but I have no clue about editing videos to make them fancy, so this is just a direct download of what I recorded from my camera.  Apologies for the moments where I forgot about the camera and my fingers disappear from the screen, and also for the odd clicking noises.  It's only a short video and I do four nails, so you will see how quickly this can be done.

Here is a photo of the final look.  The only difference here from my original mani is that I did a smaller butterfly design on my nail.  I think the full design covering the whole nail looks better, but I wanted to show another option.

Unfortunately there was no sun today, so these photos are under the bathroom light, which doesn't show the holo off as well., but you get the idea.

I found these lasted on the nail really well.  As you can see in the video, I still have the original design on my right hand. I have plenty of tip wear, but I actually found that where the tattoo was on my nail it made the holo polish last much longer.  

When I was removing the polish off my left hand prior to doing this tutorial, I found that the design actually seemed like it wasn't coming off.  I rubbed and rubbed and it didn't do anything except remove the polish from the nail where the tattoo didn't cover it.  I found that it was much easier to pick at a corner of the tattoo and peel it off in one sheet, then remove the polish off the nail.

Now I'm sure you will agree, these are super dooper easy to do.  Let me know if you get any temporary tattoo paper and give this a go!  I'd love to see what people come up with.