Crafty Chic's: Handmade Holidays Blog Hop

Welcome to the 4th Annual Handmade Holidays Blog Hop! A few years ago we were looking online for handmade gift ideas and thought it would be great if there was a resource dedicated JUST to handmade gift ideas. Enter the Handmade Holidays hop!

We've gathered over 100 of our creative blogger friends in the craft industry as well as some of our fellow product manufacturers to bring you a plethora of inspiring gift ideas you can make now to give to your friends, family, and colleagues. Pin and bookmark these ideas for this holiday season and to use throughout the year! Each day of the hop features approximately 30 gift projects and you can "hop" from one blog to another to check them all out.

I am so happy to be a part of this hop with so many amazing crafters and I cannot wait to show you the project I created using the rhinestone sticker sheets from The Buckle Boutique.

Custom cell phone cases are a great way to show off your personal style, and it can be a great gift idea . . . especially for a teen in your life.

Today I am going to show you how to make this custom cell phone case. Following the directions here you will be able to easily create a rhinestone cell phone case with an image of your choice.

First, I started off with an ugly cell phone case that I picked up at the Dollar Store. I did not care what image was already on the cell phone case since I knew I would be covering it with rhinestone sticker sheets. I knew once the project was done, it was NOT going to look like a Dollar Store case.

I also used the royal blue and clear rhinestone sticker sheets from The Buckle Boutique.

I decided to use the anchor image since the Nautical Theme seems to be a popular one right now, but feel free to use any image you like.

I cut the anchor out of the royal blue rhinestone sticker sheet. Yes, you can CUT these rhinestone sticker sheet with scissors, a craft knife or a die cutting machine. This is because the "gems" are actually a soft resin material and not a hard stone. You can find full cutting instructions and a video here, but the basics instructions are

1) place the rhinestone sticker sheet on the cutting mat with the rhinestones down, so you are cutting through the BACK of the sheet

2) flip the image, since you are cutting through the back of the sheet, otherwise your whole cut comes out backwards

3) cut at a SLOW SPEED with LOW PRESSURE on a very sticky mat with a DEEP CUT BLADE

4) I use a mulit-cut of 3 or 4 just to make sure that the blade gets all the way through the sticker sheet

I cut the same anchor shape at the same size out of the clear rhinestone sticker sheet.

Now, kind of like a puzzle, I put the clear anchor into the opening on the blue sheet, and the blue anchor into the opening on the clear sheet.

Technically, I could make TWO personalized cell phone cases now . . . one with a clear background and a blue anchor and one with a blue background and a clear anchor.

Which one do you like better?

I decided to go with the clear background and blue anchor combination. If I pick up another cell phone case I already have the product cut and ready to go to make the second one.

I peeled off the backing from the anchor image to expose the sticky adhesive back of the sticker sheet, and I stuck it to the cell phone case. I know . . . it looks a little silly over that image that was already on the cell phone case. Don't worry. The next step will take care of that.

I peeled off a few small portions of the backing on the clear rhinestone sticker sheet so that I could "puzzle piece" things back together on the cell phone case without having ALL of the adhesive exposed for the FULL cell phone case. This allowed me to be able to adjust and maneuver the piece more. I always get frustrated when you are trying to attach an embellishment and sticks to the project before you really wanted it to and then you have to peel it off and start over. This is my trick to avoid that.

I used a craft knife to trim away the excess product and to cut the little oval out of the camera hole.

From that excess that I trimmed away, I was able to cut some strips that I used to cover the sides of the sides of the cell phone case. Since the rhinestone sticker sheet are flexible, these strips easily wrap around and hug the curves of the side of the cell phone case. I used my Westcott scissors to trim the strips for the sides when I got to an opening in the cell phone case.

And there you have it! A rhinestone covered cell phone case from a Dollar Store purchase and the rhinestone sticker sheets from The Buckle Boutique!

What would YOU put on your cell phone case?

Are you ready for lots more creative handmade gift ideas and projects?? Follow along on our blog hop! Simply click on each of the links below to be taken to that post with additional information and photos on how to create a handmade gift project. Have fun and pin away!

Clearsnap
Ellison Educational Equipment
Walnut Hollow
Graphic 45
Hydrangea Hippo
Westcott
Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L
Rowland Technologies
Neat and Tangled
ICE Resin
Therm O Web
Elizabeth Craft Designs
Pink and Main
The Buckle Boutique
Clearsnap - Vivian Keh
Ashley Rader - Giddy Upcycled
ICE Resin - Jen Cushman
Candy Spiegel- Candy Scraps
Graphic 45 - Andrew Roberts
Rina Gonzales - Mothership Scrapbook Gal
Therm O Web - Amanda Niederhauser
Cori Warner - The Flying C
Yana Smakula - My Cardmaking & Scrapbooking
The Buckle Boutique - Shawn Mosch
Eileen Hull Designs - Eileen Hull
Angela Muir - Handmade in the Heartland
Krista Winters - eat, knit & d.i.y.
Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L - Erica Houghton
Katie Smith - Punk Projects
Elizabeth Craft Designs - Karen Aicken
Jeanie Hevener - Create & Babble
Ellison Educational Equipment - Hilary Kanwischer
Fancy Shanty - Stacy Molter
Liz Hicks - Blogerisms

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A huge thank you to our sponsors for this hop - please visit their blogs below and follow them. And be sure to come back tomorrow for another 30+ amazing Handmade Gift Ideas!