DIY by Shelly - Bling out your flash drive!

Hello lovely readers,
Today I finally completed my DIY Bling'ed Out Flash Drive! After thinking and thinking of what sort of DIY I should post here, it came to me. DECODEN! I've had many people ask me how I blinged out my flash drive and figured... Why not make a DIY? :)

(Photo credit: Tumblr)

What is decoden?

It's a popular mode of decorating phones and other devices, originating in Japan. It started off as a way to make your cellphone or camera look a bit more cuter and personalized and exploded into something more artistic and amazing. I stumbled into decoden about a year ago when I was looking at a makeup guru who showed her blinged out cellphone. I was amazed by it and was determined to find out where to buy it. I searched and searched and quickly discovered that blinged out cases were PRICEY!

Being the resourceful person I am, I looked closely and realized... There MUST be a way to do this myself! After researching, I discovered many tutorials and sites that showed how to accomplish these wonderfully sparkly beauties.

The next step was to find out where I can buy the supplies. First stop: Ebay. Suprisingly enough, there weren't that many deco products on Ebay. There were a few things I found under the category: scrapbooking, but it wasn't all I was looking for. All though, in terms of finding more wholesale quantities, especially for flatback rhinestones, ebay is a better choice for that. I then discovered Etsy. That is THE place to find many many many deco supplies. These are usually categorized under: Decoden or Cabochon. The most commonly used "jewels" are flatback rhinestones, flatback pearls, flatback roses and bows.

Another important tool is GLUE. Not just any glue can be used for deco. You need to use a strong adhesive to prevent your pieces from falling off. Sure, eventually it does begin to fall apart but with the right glue, it can be easily fixed. Crazy glue or glue from the hardware store works too, however, you have to work faster because they tend to dry quickly. Working fast = sloppy job. Another reason why superglue isn't the best choice is because it creates a cloudy effect on clear rhinestones which takes away from the shininess. There are glues that are made specifically for deco which can also be found on Etsy. They're a little pricey though, unfortunately.

So on to the DIY:

(click to enlarge, if necessary)

I only decorated one side of the flash drive because if I were to use it on a laptop, it would most likely be difficult to stick into the USB--- unless I just used small rhinestones all over the surface. If you really want to make this look even more adorbs, you can attach a charm on the end. I just didn't have anything handy, otherwise I would have. Perhaps my next DIY will be for phone charms. Maybe? You tell me.

I want to hear it from you. Did you like this DIY? Do you want more DIYs from me? Let me know!

That's all I have to chatter about today! Thanks for reading!