Sorry Silhouette, I love you but I'm cheap

Do you all remember a few months ago, when Silhouette came out with the rhinestone stuff? The starter kits, the rhinestones, the template material, the transfer tape? You know what I'm talking about. It was ALL over Blogland.

Now, I'm all about saving money. I hate spending money when I can just use my noggin and figure out a way around it. 

I have an awesome aunt in Korea, and her job is to put rhinestones on saris. And whenever a project is over, she sends me all the remaining iron on rhinestones. Last time I got a package from her, there were 40,000 rhinestones. No, I'm not exaggerating. I had 4 bags of 10k each. Crazy cool, huh? Seriously, I'll never be able to use all of them, and I put them on everything my girls own. And if you're a crafty buddy of mine, you can probably expect to get a few, right Lesley?

I hit up Old Navy last week when they were having their $2 tank sale, and picked up a couple for each of the girls. But being that they were plain, I knew I had to do something with them. 

I've use the rhinestones before, and usually just make up a pattern, lay them down and iron them on. I was determined to find a way to make it look cleaner. 

According to the Silhouette rhinestone instructions, it basically says

1. download and cut out the pattern

2. pull off the backing (like vinyl I assume)

3. attach it to a backing board

4. place the rhinestones on the holes

5. cover it with the transfer paper

6. life the rhinestones that are now attached to the transfer paper

7. iron on

8. remove the transfer paper

9. iron on the backside

Do you want to know how I got around that (and spending more money?)

I downloaded the image that I wanted, and had my Silhouette cut it out on regular paper. If you use the wrong carrier sheet like I did (oops) and your paper curls when you pull it off, you can iron it (which is what I did and why there are wrinkles. Oops)

Have your husband line it up on the tank top. That way, if it ends up crooked, you have someone else to blame. I trim off the extra paper, and leave about an inch border so I have some space to put the pins on.

Once we agreed it was on there straight, I pinned it to the shirt.Then I start putting on the bling. I always start placing the rhinestones on from the center out. That way, if you're slightly off, it doesn't skew your whole piece. My ironing board looks so skanky. Please don't judge me.

I decided to leave out the tail on the wand, and the top rhinestone on the letter e "tail". I iron it after every 25 or so rhinestones to attach those. Don't want to lay out all of your rhinestones, and then your kids you bump your shirt and they all get dislodged. Just follow the directions on your rhinestones. For mine, I cover with a cloth and press.

You can totally make changes to it too. After I took off the paper, I thought the tail on the p needed to be longer. So I placed the paper back on the shirt and used the stencil to figure out my spacing, and ironed on two more rhinestones.

And here is my finished piece. All sorts of gorgeous, without having to buy the kit from Silhouette.

Here is a pic of the one I did the day before.

And a pic of them together.

So there you have it, dear LC&W readers. I know not everyone has a bling hook up like I do. I've seen iron on rhinestones at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and the Silhouette online store. So yeah, you might spend some money on the bling, but maybe I just saved you from having to buy the $30 rhinestone starter kit.

You're welcome. :)

I wanna party