Cheeky Plates!

One of the parcels which was waiting for me when I got back from my holiday was from Cheeky!  I have been waiting for it to arrive for what felt like forever so I was delighted to finally get my grubby paws on my order.  Quick drive by photo of the goodies...

 

 

As I said here, I ordered the new summer set and the 2012 set too, so I received a total of 52 new plates!  I can't wait to start trying them out.  I'll do a proper in depth review in the fullness of time but I have high hopes for these plates because well as featuring loads of fantastic designs the new summer set is also much larger than the older set so should cover even the largest of my nails in the full design.

 

 

As well as being larger the new summer set came in a very cute little box with lots of added information printed on it.

 

 

I can't wait to start trying these out so expect lots of stamping manicure coming your way very soon as well as that comparison post showing in more detail the larger size of the new designs.

 

New Cheeky 'Summer' Image Plates Pre-Sale!

I've been waiting for these plates to be released for what seems like ages now so when I woke up this morning and saw on Cheeky's Facebook page that they were on pre-sale with free international shipping I had to order right away.

The set I am most excited about are the new Summer plates, 26 image plates with 161 new designs.

This time around Cheeky have decide to package their plates a little differently, they come in a cute little box for storing your plates and you also get a bonus 'manicurist's business card' which double as an emergency scraper.

 The new packaging is nice but I would have been just as happy to have them come in the old packaging which was just little plastic bags.

There have been quite a few comments on various nail sites about the price of these plates and how they are very expensive, I'm not too sure where these people are living because it certainly isn't the UK where a single Konad image plate costs £5!  The Summer collection is $24.99 which works out at about £16 which I think is a great price for 26 image plates, especially when they are currently available with free international shipping meaning the $24.99 is all you pay.

Since there was free shipping and I've heard nothing but good things about Cheeky's plates I decide to also order the first set they do too, 2012 Collection.  Another 26 plates with 160 designs.

As the new collection is still only on pre-sale at the moment Cheeky are estimating 10-20 days before the plates are delivered from China, now all I need is another 14 pairs of hands to try all the designs out on and the patience to last the next 3 weeks!

Expect more information and manicures as soon as these beauties arrive.

New Stamping Plates!

My new Dashica plates arrived today.  I can't wait to try them out, here is a quick sneak peek of what I bought.

 

 

Aquariums, beach scene, nail polish, lipstick, shells and reeds!

 

 

*****

 

 

Acorns, forests under a night sky, hearts, shooting stars and snowflakes!

 

 

*****

 

 

A full nail festive design, clouds, cocktails and some pretty fern fronds.

 

 

*****

 

Apples, cherries, teapots and bees!

 

Stamping Plate Storage - Bundle Monster, Cheeky etc.

I have three full sets of Bundle Monster plates and I'm hoping to add the new Cheeky collection to them as soon as it's released so I have quite a few plates to store.  Initially I kept them in a little pot but now that the collection is mounting that was getting quite awkward and didn't give me a good view of all the plates and images I had.  So I started to look into solutions and that led me to order this little book from Amazon.

There was quite a bit of talk about using a business card holder to store plates and in the end I chose this one because of it's pocket size, 9cm by 6cm, which was slightly larger than some other card holders.  I'd measured my BM plates and they were around 5.5cm across which seemed to be the standard size of a pocket in most holders, this one's 6cm width meant that there would be a little bit of wiggle room for the plates, hopefully making them easier to get in and out.

On to the holder.  The cover is a little dull so I think I might personalise it somehow, ideally I would stamp on it so that it showed some of the images that were on the plates it was storing but I think that might be tricky as any polish would rub off pretty fast.

Inside the book has 60 little pockets, 3 to a page.  If you put the plates in back to back so one shows out each side you can store 120 plates.  The plastic sheets seem pretty tough and should stand up to having the metal plates stored inside them.

As you can see three plates fit neatly into each section.

And once both sides are filled up it's easy to flip through your whole collection, page by page.

There is plenty of room in the book and even now I have 3 full collections (71 plates) in there it doesn't make looking through the selection any more difficult.

The pockets are deep enough that the plates are well secured in them and although they move around a little they haven't yet fallen out when I have been using the holder.

The plates slide in and out easily whenever you want to take them out for a closer look or use them.

The one downside is that my (slightly larger, differently shaped) QA plates don't fit into the business card holder so I am still looking for a way to store them, if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

However for Bundle Monster, and similarly sized, plates this is definitely a great, cost effective solution and makes flipping through your collection so much simpler.

Homemade backing for stamping plates

Some image plates for nail stamping come without any backing on them, this leaves sharp edges which can either cut your fingers or scratch other plates, there is a simple way to rectify this issue if you do happen to buy plates with no backing.

What you will need:

Double sided sticky tape

Scissors

Scalpel

Card

(possibly a nail file)

Firstly, cover the back of your image plate with double sided sticky tape, trim away the excess using scissors, I find scissors work better than the scalpel at this stage, you should be left with this:

Next, peel off the backing from your tape and place the image plate onto a piece of firm card, press it down well to make sure it grips then cut around the plate using a scalpel:

Once you done that pop it out of the sheet of cardboard and tidy up the edges.  I find a nail file will take away any wispy bits you have left if you can't get them all with scissors or your scalpel.

You'll be left with neatly backed plates which won't harm you or your other plates.