1. Try to avoid leaving the slides exposed for too long and prop-up the slide that will be used to make the smear.

2. Twist the cover off the lancet and make a pin-prick on a fingertip.  Gentle pressure with your thumb can help the blood drop to appear.

3. Put a blood drop the size of a match head near one end of the slide. Position the smearing slide on the surface of the sample slide just in front of the blood drop.

4. Draw the smearing slide back till it touches the blood drop and hold it there for a second or two. The blood will spread out along the edge of the smearing slide.

5. With the smearing slide at an angle of around 30 degrees – smoothly push forward along the sample slide.  The blood drop should run-out before it reaches the end of the slide, if it does not the blood drop was too big.

6. Not quite a perfect slide, you can see where I faltered pushing the smearing slide. But it is a useable thin smear for staining.