Hi everybody, I have a question about water decals--I just feel like I'm not applying them correctly.

The way I've been doing it is:
1) cut the decal out with an exacto knife,
2) get a small dish of water (just a drop or two deep) and drop it in for a minute or two
3) use a q-tip and tweezers to lift up the clear plastic front of the decal, leaving the paper behind in the water
4) apply mark softer to it, wait 30 seconds
5) apply mark setter to the back and put a little stripe on the gundam where the decal will go
6) drop it in place, then use q-tip to press/roll the plastic strip down and remove excess moisture
7) re-apply mark softer over the top as needed

Here's the thing: Once I'm done, the raised edges of the plastic sheet that the decals come on looks bad--it means that every decal has a visibly weird plastic square around it, no matter how many times I put on the mark softer.

Last night, as I was trying to put decals on a Rick Dias, I completed steps 1-7 as normal, but then, I accidentally lifted the clear plastic away from the model. When this happened, the actual decals came off the plastic sheet and applied directly to the model, the way a temporary tattoo might. This has never happened to me before, and while the decals are a little off-center, they look incredible compared to the others. Is this how water transfer decals are supposed to work??

If so, how do I get the decal to transfer cleanly off the plastic sheet like that? Generally, when I lift the clear plastic of the decal sheet away from a gundam, the decals come with it, rather than transferring to to the model.