Blinging a camera ♡

Got a new camera last month and only just found time to buy Swarovskis to bling it with. I could never find the time to head over to the crystal store on Arab Street as they close at 6pm on weekdays, and I have work till 530pm :(

The camera I got was the mirrorless Olympus Pen Mini EPM-1 in pink! I was deciding between this and the Nikon J1, I liked this more~ ♡♥♡ But one sad thing is that it lacks is a front screen, unlike my older camera.

But, this give more HQ images, has pretty filters and interchangeable lens, so I can live with that. It also gives me a chance to regain self-shot skills, which I threw away after getting a camera with a front-screen hehehe :D

Decided that I wanted a pink-ish color scheme and bought the bling~ ♡

The base /filler is mostly AB 9 and Sun AB 9, with some AB 14 and Sun AB 12 for size variation. Used Rose 9 and Indian Pink 12 for color accents, while butterfly-shaped crystals in AB and Rose 34 added size accents.

The ring around is Light Siam AB 14.

The crown in the corner is the same as the one on my phone, they were originally a pair of earrings but I cut off the earring part.

Full front view, the body is actually really tiny compared with the lens!

So I didn't feel satisfied blinging just the front and hence, I blinged the sides/back and the flash.

Front/side view.

Back view, blinged the flash too! ♡

The flash and lens are detachable :)

I love my new camera and feel so happy just to use it! ♡♥♡

I did not use up all the crystals I bought, but if I were to estimate the cost of blinging this camera, it would probably be around S$50? This is around how much it was for my old camera, which required more crystals. However, for this camera most of the crystals I used were AB coated; they cost more than regular uncoated crystals.

Compared to the cameras, the crystals for my phone cost more, though that can probably be attributed to the size of that area to be blinged. For this camera, the body is tiny, and much of the space in front is taken up by the lens, so that really decreases the area to be blinged. For the phone on the other hand, it's just one large rectangular area, so more bling was needed, and more bling = more $$$.

All these photos were taken with my phone ♡ Sometimes I feel lazy to use a real camera because phones have all the amazing apps that have pretty filters and frames (*´д`*) Anyway, for some reason, I feel happy when I'm blinging stuff, and I haven't blinged anything since my pen last year :( So I was really glad during these few hours I was blinging the camera~ :D

My Camera ♥

I get a lot of emails asking about my camera and how I did it, so tada, here it is! I bling-ed my camera the moment I bought it, so it's been almost a year, but the crystals have been very durable, with amazing lasting power ♥

This is how my camera looks like now, no points for guessing why I got this model: the FRONT SCREEN~♥! Perfect for selcas! Well, actually more of a convenience since practice has made me adept at taking with normal cameras as well^^ But fun to play with since you actually know how the photo'll turn out like. Also, for timed shots it'll show a 3-2-1 countdown.

My room has fluorescent lighting, so you can't really see the sparkles. But under sunlight and yellow lights, especially at night, this really sparkles like jewels! Always fascinates me even till now. *attracted to shiny things*
This was a reflection on the inside of a bus in Rome...it was summer and the sun was shining intensely everywhere, so I took out my camera and it reflected all these pretty colors onto the wall ♥
My camera's model is Samsung PL 150 in red. Without the bling, it actually looked like this. (Picture from Google as I never actually bothered to take a picture of my camera before I bling-ed it!) The very day I got it, I started bling-ing it as I was leaving for Europe for a 3week trip a couple of days after, and really wanted to bring my bling-ed up baby.

As mentioned earlier, I got my camera in June 2010. I bling-ed it right after I got it, so these pictures were all from last year, taken with my phone.

Planning the design by placing crystals on the camera's surface. In total I used over 1,000 Swarovski crystals. Bought them from Arab Street, they came in packets of 144, and I used up 7 packets and a bit. Blue Zircon (turquoise) and Silk (off-white) were the main colors I used, but I also used Chrysolite (light green) and Light Sapphire AB. As for sizes, I used ss7, ss8 and ss10, if I recall correctly.

At first, I wanted to bling it up in pink, but almost everyone who blings their stuff has pink bling, so I decided to go for turquoise. I'd like to try violet next! I still want pink though! But I need more ornaments. Haven't actually been able to find any decent ones in Singapore. The ones I used for my camera were plucked/plier-ed off from jewellery.

Used tweezers to place every crystal on, one by one.

Almost completed the layer of crystals, just need to finish the lens.

Added some "ornaments" like hearts and flowers.

Side view. I covered all the black parts at the side (refer to un-bling-ed picture)

It's not flat, but actually slightly curved, so I used Silk in varying sizes.

Completed! Added "ornaments" of 4 flowers and 2 hearts, which actually came from old jewellery. I really liked the pearl heart on the top...but a few days after completing this I lost it somewhere on the streets of Rome... :(

How it looks like now!

This is how it looks like now, 11 months later and after much abuse^^ Other than the top heart, none of the other ornaments fell off. Crystals mostly came off from around the lens, but other than that the rest are pretty much the way they were 11 months ago. I've never had to touch up, though I guess I should around the lens^^

I used GS Hypo Cement glue, which has a needle-thin applicator that makes it sooo convenient for dealing with crystals ♥ And I have to say that it's really lasting! 11 months of not-very-gentle treatment and hardly any crystals fell off. And the crystals actually protected my camera from scratches as well.

Bling-ing things is so much fun, but crystals can be expensive. In total mine cost ~SGD$55(~USD$44), for 8 packets and glue. I suppose you'd use up less crystals if you use larger sizes, but larger sizes cost more per packet. You'd use up more packets if you use smaller sizes, but smaller sizes cost less per packet. So I guess it balances out? I like the end product of using smaller crystals because 1)it looks more intricate and detailed, hence you can design more, 2)it looks like it requires more effort than large crystals, and 3)the sparkling effect is more amped up with more crystals!