Crazy nails and tiny stones make non-tasty butterfingers out of any rhinestone job. If you can’t pick up your embellishing elements, how can you wow the crowd with your glitzy pizzazz? Make things easy on yourself and increase your speed on the rhinestone road with today’s Cool Tool of the Day: the wax-tipped Pick-N-Stick. This mini magic wand -with its moldable wax tip, comfort grip and refining end- makes grabbing and placing crystals a breeze.

I suggest forming your wax tip into a point. With the faintest touch of the wax, you can pick up a single rhinestone, place it on your glue dot, and with a slight twist, release the stone. The adhesive will take over from there (try not to get excessive amounts of wax on the back side of the stone, lest it interfere with your adhesive performance. Don't worry- that’s pretty hard to do, but just in case, the warning is there). It actually sounds much more complicated than it really is. You’re basically just pointing at two spots. By the time you’ve finished reading the snippet, “With the faintest touch,” you could have already applied your crystal. “It’s JUST that easy!! But wait- there’s more!” 

What I like to call the refining end is basically the other end of the stick. I use it to adjust or press the stone down after I’ve placed it; that way, I don’t get stray glue on my delicate lady hands, and I don’t have to get a facet-shaped callus from pushing with my pointer finger. 

We’ve found other around-the-house items that may aid in your pick up-and-place tasks: a frosting-free birthday candle, a pencil eraser, even a toothpick dipped in candle wax. We sure love our Pick-N-Sticks, though. For one thing, they work in other areas of your creative genius, like a carving tool for clay, a makeup touch up tool, a fine point for hard-to-reach places like the crevices of your sewing machine, an eye-poker in the face of danger (or a stray Stooge). 

The wax tip can help you thumb through your stacks of money when you’re counting, or when you're in the club, making it rain! There's a chance it might even work to pick pockets of loose change...* (*Rhinestones Unlimited does not condone picking pockets.) And, chances of other members of your household walking off with a hot pink stick are less likely than them walking off with your pencil. 

You can get a two-pack of Pick-N-Sticks for just a few bucks- why not? A cheap investment for such a useful little pink stick. If you prefer to work with tweezers, we’ve got those, too: Fine and finer, both with an angled neck to help keep the precision calibrated points out of the glue blobs.

In my opinion, the tweezers are especially nice for those of you who frequently work with 10ss stones and smaller. Although, they are handy to have around either way. You know; stray hair here, sliver there, lost chopstick somewhere under here, rethreading your serger over there. Also, so handy when you want to cheat at a game of Operation!* (*Rhinestones Unlimited does not condone cheating.) 

In conclusion, I say spend the 5-spot on the little tool, whether Pick-N-Sticks or tweezers, or birthday candles. 10 seconds off of each stone adds up quickly, my friend. You have better things to do with your nails than get flat backs stuck underneath them; finish up your project faster with the help of our Cool Tools, and with all that time you saved, do something fun. 

It's once again yours to fritter away. You can even spend it on sleep, if you want. I know that's what some of you want. 

-xo- 

Jemm 

Rhinestones Unlimited blog author Jemm Stone is a multifaceted girl navigating our sparkly world with on-point insights. Visit RhinestonesU.com/blog to follow her thoughts as she highlights design trends, turns the spotlight on industry influencers and breaks down how-to tips like light through a crystal prism.