Personalized Backpack – with Rhinestones!!

I have the perfect solution to spice up a hand-me-down backpack today…. make it personalized!  With rhinestones!!  It doesn’t get much better 🙂

I was sent a Rhinestone Starter Kit from Silhouette to try out – – love it!!

And of course, there’s an awesome deal that starts today….

 Here’s my project for today – Rhinestone Backpack Tutorial – but keep reading because I show off several other project ideas at the end of the post….

The kit comes with an instruction booklet but I thought I’d walk you through a quick how-to, because it’s a neat concept and I want you to know what the whole rhinestone thing is all about…

First, you use “rhinestone” template designs (the kit comes with free ones, plus you can buy tons more in the Silhouette Store) – but DON’T RESIZE your image – – most images come with several sizes (see, 3 sizes of flowers) – you can’t resize it because the holes are preset and you don’t want to mess them up.

So the machine will cut the template – see it with all the holes:

And then you stick that to a thick board – like so (making it completely reuseable!):

Now when you pour on the rhinestones, you swirl them around til they fit in all the holes.  I have to hand-place some, but that’s okay – til you get this:

Then you use special transfer tape for heat – it’s like a clear sticker – and put it on top of your rhinestones – and they all stick in their place – and it looks like this:

Then you take that and iron it on to whatever you’re making.  The rhinestones have glue that’s heat-activated on the back of them.  So cool!

I love the way it turned out!

 It took a backpack that was a hand-me-down and really turned it into her own – she loves it!!!

 She is going to summer school this summer.  It’s a fun optional thing to do in our area.  It’s just a few weeks long.  None of the other kids wanted to go this year, but she did – she’s going into Kindergarten and couldn’t wait til fall!!  Here’s a before and after of the backpack – on the left is the first day of summer school (no rhinestones) and on the right is how she looked getting on the bus today – funny that it’s the same hairdo.

 Other ideas from me for using your Rhinestone kit: