Has anyone decorated their Magic Bands? Please show us the pictures!

[DisneyFansInNYC]

Here's my Elsa magic band. I think I overdid it with the glitter but I still love it! It held up very well on the trip. It started cracking but no nail polish fell off.

This is excellent. Great job....as my kids would say - there is never enough glitter.

 

[Davis5207]

KAT4DISNEY... "Pics of the band done for DH - the NE sports fan. Far from perfect but he liked it. "


Where did you get the tattoos? My husband would LOVE THIS!

 

[brianheather]

we are there December 6-8, so we did ours up for xmas.

How did you get the bands such a smooth solid color

 

[brianheather]

I have been playing around with some old bands with temp tattoos and clear nail polish. Question for everyone that has done them, how do you get the tattoos to jump off the band, and not look so dark? Has anyone tried using poly spray on the bands? Do you paint the band with a base coat before applying tattoos? Thank you in advance.

 

[iheartglaciers]

I have been playing around with some old bands with temp tattoos and clear nail polish. Question for everyone that has done them, how do you get the tattoos to jump off the band, and not look so dark? Has anyone tried using poly spray on the bands? Do you paint the band with a base coat before applying tattoos? Thank you in advance.

I had a pink band, so I didn't have a problem with the tattoos looking too dark. I saw others used acrylic paint or nail polish to paint the MB a lighter color before putting the tattoos on.

I used glow-in-the-dark Mod Podge as a base (it made the band glow on dark rides!) and Aleene's matte acrylic sealer spray on top to finish it off and make it waterproof. The Mod Podge is a little tacky so it makes a nice base for the tattoos. But the sealer spray makes it smooth and waterproof (since Mod Podge is not).

 

[riverbend]

I have been playing around with some old bands with temp tattoos and clear nail polish. Question for everyone that has done them, how do you get the tattoos to jump off the band, and not look so dark? Has anyone tried using poly spray on the bands? Do you paint the band with a base coat before applying tattoos? Thank you in advance.

A white base coat will make the temp tats show up better. Unfortunately, I don't have any experience using a base coat but I guess in theory you could paint the whole band white as a base, apply the tattoos, then paint the band around the tattoos a different color. That actually sounds pretty complicated.

 

[slzer0]

I was planning to top coat with Mod Podge Outdoor. Anyone try thus?

What a great idea to use the glow as a base coat!!!

Tips on where to get some Stitch temporary tattoos?

 

[emilymad]

I have been playing around with some old bands with temp tattoos and clear nail polish. Question for everyone that has done them, how do you get the tattoos to jump off the band, and not look so dark? Has anyone tried using poly spray on the bands? Do you paint the band with a base coat before applying tattoos? Thank you in advance.

What I did for DH's is do a base coat over the entire band. Then I trimmed down the tattoo as small as I could with it still on the backing paper. I then traced the tattoo on the band. I then used white nail polish in that area. Once that dried I placed the tattoo. Before doing clear top coats I used nail polish remover to clean up the white nail polish a little bit.

This was for doing a tattoo on the original color of the band.

It wasn't as complicated as it sounds. I haven't taken pictures yet but I will post when I do.

 

[luvdsny2014]

I used glitter fingernail polish over the blue mb. The white is white out pen. It's suppose to be stars but kinda looks like snowflakes! Should have rethought my color combination

 

[cgattis]

Just finished up my second magic band, this one for my husband and his love of the Adventurers club!

Mother. Of. Pearl. That is amazing. Please let us know what you used. I leave in 20 days and mine haven't shipped....I hope I end up having time to do mine!!

 

[P&L@WDW]

Unfortunately, being in Canada, we won't get our bands until we check in.

I am planning on taking glitter polish (dark red for my friend, blue for me) to paint them in our room the first evening after we arrive. What else will I need to make painting them easy, and to make the paint last? A base coat/top coat?

 

[TheyThinkImCrazy]

Unfortunately, being in Canada, we won't get our bands until we check in.

I am planning on taking glitter polish (dark red for my friend, blue for me) to paint them in our room the first evening after we arrive. What else will I need to make painting them easy, and to make the paint last? A base coat/top coat?

I would use base coat for both base and top coat. It is more flexible than top coat. I used base coat as top coat on my first band, and it held up well, but just because I wanted it to be shinier I recently put on top coat, and now it has cracked.

Also, I found it helpful to have access to polish remover just in case I made mistakes. I have seen it in little individual towelette type packets that would be convenient for travel.

 

[EeyoreFan19]

Thank you all for sharing your ideas and talents! We just returned from an 8 night stay, and I decorated our bands based on what I had read here. I used base coat, tattoos, glitter nail polish, then more base coat on top. After 6 park days, 2 water parks, and numerous trips to the pool, our bands looked just as good the last day as they did the first. We received so many compliments on them, and quite a few people asked how we made them. Just made the trip a bit more magical.

 

[jpkkld]

Yay! It's finally my turn!













Castle design was nail polish, nail decals, and castle tattoos from a Frozen sheet of tattoos. I painted white nail polish on the exposed side of the tattoo and used a craft knife to trim to the edges. Then I put a very thin coat of clear on the band and positioned the tattoo onto it. I did both sides and they both turned out great! I dabbed on a slightly darker blue in the center by the Mickey head - in person, it's really pretty and it merges into the lighter blue perfectly. I used Sinful Colors "Cinderella" for the blue (super pretty and subtle sparkle). The sparkle over the white is a combination of nail decals with glitter on them and a clear coat with glitter in it. I also added base coat as the final layers (no glitter). There is SO MUCH polish on that band; I packed touch up supplies for when it chips!

My daughter really just wanted dark purple and sparkly. She's very happy with her efforts! She also added the same glitter over her color layers and nail decals.
My DH utterly refused to decorate his. DD pestered him relentlessly until he gave in. Now he agrees it was a good choice. Of course, tiger stripes weren't HIS choice! DD was also considering tiger stripes for her band. She put the orange on, and I outlined with the black sharpie. I added one coat of base over that to prevent scratches. We'll see how it holds up!

The most fun and most time-consuming were the 4 layers of glow-in-the-dark. I ordered "Ghoulish Glow" from Amazon - local stores carried nada. The glow polish turns, well, pasty ghoulish yellow. It looked good on DH's orange, but not so much on DD and my silver Mickey's.

COOL TIP: If you use glow, you can put a thin coat of color ON TOP to restore the aesthetics. Glitter is also an option. The glow will still work!

My glowing Mickey looks goofy because I accidentally put way more than a thin coat on top. But the other two came out great.

These were ridiculously fun. I can't wait for our trip!

 

[Ero_FL]

...how do you get the tattoos to jump off the band, and not look so dark? ... Do you paint the band with a base coat before applying tattoos? Thank you in advance.

I did a white base-coat for Anna and Elsa on DD1's band, then put the tattoos on that. I cleaned the edges around them with remover and a Q-tip. It worked really well. I tried to do the same with the baby's Tangled band but it did not turn out well, I think because it wasn't the solid oval portrait (like Anna/Elsa) I tried. I ended up wiping that entirely and went with the flower design and some other things. If you are going to use a lighter base coat, like white or tan, you can make the tattoos pop more- but it's really hard to not just look like a light blob with the detailed tattoos. My son's pirate band is very dark.

I did not use a base coat for my son's or the baby's. Nor did I use a base coat for my and DH's hand-painted ones.

My bands:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=51489065#post51489065

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=51496707#post51496707

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51543629&postcount=1184

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=51591939#post51591939

 

[Disney_Alli]

I have been playing around with some old bands with temp tattoos and clear nail polish. Question for everyone that has done them, how do you get the tattoos to jump off the band, and not look so dark? Has anyone tried using poly spray on the bands? Do you paint the band with a base coat before applying tattoos? Thank you in advance.

This is where the plastic bag method works well. Paint a base coat onto a plastic bag. When it dries apply the tattoo as you would normally. When that dries you should be able to peal the tattoo off the bag. Paint the underside of the tattoo with white nail polish. Allow to dry then place it on the band and seal it with base coat. This will leave the band it's original or painted colour but allow the tattoo to stand out.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

This is where the plastic bag method works well. Paint a base coat onto a plastic bag. When it dries apply the tattoo as you would normally. When that dries you should be able to peal the tattoo off the bag. Paint the underside of the tattoo with white nail polish. Allow to dry then place it on the band and seal it with base coat. This will leave the band it's original or painted colour but allow the tattoo to stand out.

This is another advantage of the bad method that we didn't take advantage of, but we'll try that next time. We just applied white paint to the base coat on the bag, then the temporary tattoo. Then after peeling it away from the bag we trimmed it down yo what we wanted, so there wouldn't be any extra white sera around the tattoo but it would still have a bright background to stand out.

For the bag method we used a Sally Hansen topcoat, and it worked well and remained flexible when peeled from the bag, but we have gotten some cracking with the bands in use. For the future we will try looking for something more flexible, perhaps base coat.

 

[TheyThinkImCrazy]

What's this? Sorry...I couldn't resist.

The mickey head glows in the dark...

A better view of the duck toy

I am ridiculously excited to (finally) have my Nightmare Before Christmas MB. I gave up the first time around and went for Maleficent, but I couldn't wait to get a second MB so that I could have my Nightmare MB too. ig ot everything that I wanted on there except Zero. I was finished before I realized it, so I left it as it was.

I added top coat to the Maleficent band and it cracked, so I am in the process of redoing that one. I think I will go in a different direction this time though...maybe something less dark.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

KAT4DISNEY... "Pics of the band done for DH - the NE sports fan. Far from perfect but he liked it. " Where did you get the tattoos? My husband would LOVE THIS!

No tattoos on this one-it was my free hand drawing with nail polish. But there are tattoos for most everything so I'd bet you could find some online.

 

[cgattis]

What's this? Sorry...I couldn't resist. The mickey head glows in the dark... A better view of the duck toy I am ridiculously excited to (finally) have my Nightmare Before Christmas MB. I gave up the first time around and went for Maleficent, but I couldn't wait to get a second MB so that I could have my Nightmare MB too. ig ot everything that I wanted on there except Zero. I was finished before I realized it, so I left it as it was. I added top coat to the Maleficent band and it cracked, so I am in the process of redoing that one. I think I will go in a different direction this time though...maybe something less dark.

Oh WOW......I LOVE the way he's looking at that Mickey head!!! (No that's NOT the head you found in the lake...). And the holes in the duck??? Genius. This is amazing. Thanks for sharing!!!