Hey crafters!  I am so excited to show you today’s product up for review by The Buckle Boutique.  These rhinestone sticker sheets are AMAZING and so unique compared to other rhinestone sheets on the market.  Before we get into the nitty-gritty lets see how The Buckle Boutique describes these gorgeous sheets of bling:

“Add sparkle and shine to scrapbook pages, cards, favors, personal electronics, anything that needs a little or lots of BLING!  Because the 3mm “stones” are actually a gel or soft resin substance, they can be cut down the middle.The stones are continuous and butt up against each other on the entire sheet. No spaces! They are great if you wish to cover an entire surface quickly and easily.

These awesome sheets have adhesive on the back that is exposed when the protective film is peeled off.”

I did a quick video review of these rhinestone sheets that you can watch and get some basics:

Now before we go further in the review, I want to clarify a couple of things about these bling sheets.  What we are reviewing and cutting with today is Buckle Boutique’s newest formula of gel rhinestone.  They have had previous bling sheets that weren’t quite as “squishy,” and are best used with steel-rule dies only.  I have also been reassured that only the newest formulation of the bling sheets are sold in their online store.  The Buckle Boutique also previously sold a 4mm gel rhinestone, but now they will be only offering the 3mm rhinestone in solid colors.  Here’s a quick comparison:

Now that is cleared up, let’s go into full review mode!  In the video you can see me demonstrating different scissors how easy it is to cut the rhinestone sticker sheets.  I have yet to find a pair of scissors that cannot cut the sticker sheets.  I also tested out cutting the rhinestone sticker sheets with my manual die-cut machines, the Cuttlebug and Vagabond, as well as with the electronic die-cutters, the Cricut and Silhouette.  You can see the samples below:

The rhinestone sheets cut wonderfully in the Vagabond with steel-rule dies with the regular cutting pads.  When I was testing a few other kinds of dies with my Vagabond, I accidentally, and royally, jammed my machine.  With help from my husband I was able to release the jam, but here is where my warning is:  Use caution if cutting with a machine like the Vagabond that has a motor since the sticker sheets are thicker than most materials and may mess with your sandwich combinations.   I felt more comfortable testing things out with the Cuttlebug.  I was very surprised to see that framelits cut well with the rhinestone sheets.  I used the A,B and C plates for cutting framelits and I can say that larger shapes definitely cut cleaner than smaller, more detailed shapes.  Steel-rule dies went through the cuttlebug as well using two B cutting plates.  With all die-cut machines make sure that your cutting pad is facing down towards the sticker/paper backing to get the cleanest cut.

Next I tried cutting shapes out using my Silhouette cameo and Cricut.  The Silhouette cameo cut the shapes really great, even down to intricate and thin designs.  I set my blade to ten, speed to two and thickness at 33.  I will say that you may need to use a craft blade to get some parts of the design out, mostly where the blades turn or rotate sharply.  With the Cricut I used my deep cut blade set to five, speed 1 and pressure to max.  I didn’t feel the need to double-cut, either.  I ran into problems when it came to intricate and more detailed designs; the Cricut really just wouldn’t cut through the bling sheets.  However, when it came to simple designs and shapes, the Cricut really cut beautifully.  When using electronic die-cut machines, make sure to place your rhinestone sticker sheet, bling down and the sticker backing facing up.  Don’t forget to flip or reverse your image as well, since we’re cutting our designs backwards!  Make sure your mat is extra sticky and you may want to use painters tape to secure the rhinestone sheet to your cutting mat.  I also found that you can get a better cut if you center your image on your bling sheet as opposed to a corner or edge.

One thing that I also played with was adding alcohol and archival inks to the rhinestones.  I definitely think that the alcohol inks are a better choice when adding color.  They were able to seep down into the crevices of the bling sheets and I was able to mix colors to get some really spiffy effects!

Another thing I wanted to make a quick note of that I mentioned in the video is the adhesive backing on the sticker sheets.  It is AMAZING.  It’s not permanent which I actually enjoy.  You can reposition your bling just about as many times as your heart desires.  I was even pleasantly surprised to see that I could stick it to fabric and run it through the washing machine without the bling budging an inch!  The only thing I honestly found that the bling sheets didn’t adhere to was a soft, silicone phone case I tried to use for one of my samples.  The bling sheets would fall off if I flexed the phone case.  However, I was able to purchase a hard plastic case from the dollar store and that worked  like a charm!  Which brings me to…

A TARDIS phone case!  Quite a few of us here at Craft Test Dummies are hardcore, “Doctor Who” addicts.  I had so much fun creating this sample.  The bling sheets were easy to cut out with an XActo knife to get the right pattern and even the rounded corners at the edges and cutting out a hole for the camera on the back of the phone.

These rhinestone sticker sheets are great for adding a little pizzazz to some rather ordinary white candles!  I am happy to report that the adhesive still clung to the surface of the candle.

After making the candles, I was feeling a bit on the bridal side and decided to make a ribbon hair piece.  I cut the two flowers using a steel-ruled sizzix die and then lined the ribbon and its ends with two rows of the rhinestones.  It was so easy to do!  I can’t imagine trying to sit and hotfix or apply by hand all of these gems to ribbon or fabric.  It was such a quick and easy project.  Here are some more shots of it in action:

Buckle Boutique bling sheets are available through the Buckle Boutique website as well as Amazon.  They come in two different sizes, 6×10 and 10×20, depending on what you need for your project size.  The 6×10 are priced at $8, the large 10×20 sheets are $20 for solid colors and $28 for large patterned sheets. This may seem like a lot of money for a 10×20 sheet, but in perspective, that’s large enough to cover most laptop cases, which blinged out ones usually retail for $50.  A little bit of product does go a long way, too!  The only drawback I see to this product is that I can’t stop covering things in these sticker sheets!  Let me know what you think and if you all have any questions and take a look at some more fun samples I made below!

Product provided for review: All opinions are my own.

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