Everyone who knows me loves the fact that I love a bit of sparkle and I’m always encouraging others to add a bit of bling into their lives. So when my friend asked if I could add rhinestones to her wellies for Glastonbury, I was more than happy to have a go and get some Crystal Parade sparkle to the famous festival. So how did I do this and would she need them or would the sun shine this year?
She had an idea of what she wanted, and it was a lightning bolt on the side of each welly boot. So, the first thing I did was get out my trusty Cricut cutting machine and had a look on Design Space for a Lightning Bolt. There were plenty of images to choose from, and with a bit of editing I soon had my image. So the next job was to cut the image out using permanent vinyl and the plan was to use this cut vinyl as my template. 
Once cut, it was time to get creative with the crystals, but first a little preparation to make sure the vinyl and the crystals would adhere to the wellies. This involved wiping down the welly with alcohol wipe, to clean the area ready, I then sanded down the vinyl to make the surface a little rough to make sure the crystals stay put. I stuck the vinyl to each welly and was ready to go. As the wellies were black and bluey green and my friend wanted mainly crystal clear rhinestones used, I decided to use Zodiac Peacock Blue to edge the lightning strike. 
I used mainly SS16, a 4mm crystal, to fill in the body of the lightning strike, I then had a packet of 200 Zodiac mixed sizes to fill in my gaps. As some of the crystals were going straight on to the welly, and wellies move when you walk, I decided to use E6000 glue, which is flexible and waterproof. I put some of the glue into a syringe and used an amber tip, which is a good tip to use for this particular glue, and squeezed out tiny glue dots along the edge of the lightning bolt image. I then used my Crystal Katana pick up tool to start picking up and sticking the crystals to the welly. 
Once I had finished the clear crystals and filled in my gaps, I started on the blue. I used mainly SS10 which is a 3mm crystal to do this as it was a much smaller area, but I had a pack of 200 Zodiac mixed sizes to fill in the gaps for this part too.
I repeated this process for both wellies. So, these wellies were well and truly festival ready and their new owner was delighted with them - especially the sparkle they were giving off. With festival season upon us why not try doing your own pair, as we all know every festival needs that little bit of extra sparkle.
