Know exactly how many stones you need, which pattern to use, and where to find the best price. All in one app, built for dance moms, crafters, and small business owners.
We read thousands of posts across the biggest rhinestone and crafting communities to find out what frustrates artists every day. Four questions came up over and over.
The number one question in every group. Artists are guessing, over-ordering, wasting money, or running short mid-project. Nobody should have to do rhinestone math by hand.
Prices change constantly. Artists are opening six or ten tabs, comparing stores by hand, and still not sure they found the best deal. It takes hours every time they order.
ss sizes are confusing, especially for beginners. Unlabeled bags, mixed sizes, and no easy way to measure. Most people are just eyeballing it.
Tumblers are tapered, curved, and every brand is slightly different. Flat surface formulas do not work. Artists want tumbler math that accounts for the real shape.
Which is actually cheaper? Scout does the math so your hands don't have to leave the glue.
Every feature exists because rhinestone, strass, and bling artists asked for it.
Identify stone sizes from ss3 to ss40, then calculate exact counts for grid, honeycomb, scatter, cushion, and linear fill patterns.
Flat or curved, we handle it. Rectangles, circles, cylinders, cups, and custom shapes. Exact stone counts for every project.
Compare prices across 10+ suppliers in real time. Find the best deal on every color and size, every week.
Download your comparison data, save projects, and share quotes with clients in a single click.
From weekend crafters to full-time strassing professionals, Scout saves time and money on every project.
No more guessing, no more over-ordering, no more overpaying.
Choose your surface type, enter dimensions, and pick your stone size.
Instantly see how many stones you need for grid, honeycomb, or scatter fill patterns.
Scout compares 10+ suppliers so you always get the best deal on every stone.
Short, plain-English guides for the stuff I wish someone had told me when I started. No fluff. Just the things that save you money and frustration.
A standard 20 oz tapered tumbler takes around 2,000 ss16 stones for a full grid fill. Less if you scatter. Here's the math, and the shortcut Scout uses.
Read the guide →
Thirty costumes, eight colors each, and a Friday deadline. How to estimate the order, group the shopping, and keep the budget from blowing up mid-season.
Read the guide →
One bag says 1,440 stones for $12. Another says 50 grams for $9. One's in Canadian dollars. Here's how to decode any listing and compare in seconds.
Read the guide →Grid is clean and uses the most stones. Honeycomb is tighter and slightly cheaper. Scatter is the most forgiving. Here's when to pick each one.
Read the guide →ss stands for "stone size," measured in millimeters. ss16 is roughly 4mm. Here's the full size chart and a cheat sheet for matching size to project.
Read the guide →Not always. For ss10 and smaller, bulk usually wins. For ss30+, the breakeven changes. Here's the quick calculator, and when to split an order across shops.
Read the guide →Stop opening ten tabs to find one color. Scout shows you every shop that has what you need right now, with live stock checks.
Scout scans 10+ rhinestone suppliers and compares prices per stone, per gross, and per pack. See who has the best deal on the exact color and size you need, updated every single week.
Start free. Upgrade when you need more power.
Scout watches the numbers so you don't have to. Catch a drop, skip a hike, plan your bigger orders around the weekly data.
Scout is my beloved little Westie, and he is always finding things. Socks under the couch, coins in the carpet, that one rhinestone you thought rolled away three weeks ago. He is a natural detective. When I started this project, naming it after him was the only thing that made sense.
A little about me. I'm a sassy old hippie in my 70s, living it up in Tampa, Florida with Scout, my granddaughters down the road, and a backyard full of birds that don't pay rent. Before any of this, I spent 35 years as a software engineer at the same company. I retired a few years back. Now I split my days between knitting, bottomless mimosa brunches that I refuse to apologize for, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and my newest love: bling.
I fell hard for rhinestones somewhere between making things for my granddaughters and getting lost down the bling rabbit hole online. So I did the thing I know how to do. I built a tool.
Scout (the website, not the dog, though he helps) checks prices at the suppliers I've come to trust every week, lays them out side by side, and shows the true cost per stone before you buy. No favorites, no hidden deals, no fluff. Just the numbers.
I built it with help from the bling artists I've learned from over the years, and a fair bit of help from AI, which still makes me chuckle every time I say it out loud. I hope you have as much fun using it as I had putting it together.
Oh, and there's a podcast. Pour a cup of something and have a listen. Scout might bark in the background.
Press play. Gertie tells you the whole story behind Crystal Shift, how she met Mark and Emily, and why she asked them to host the show.
Mark and Emily are two friends of mine who host the Crystal Shift Podcast. Every week they take a deep dive into the rhinestone and bling world. They research the top suppliers, the people who built them, and the surprisingly rich history of a craft most of us have never actually been taught.
It's educational, a little nerdy, and genuinely interesting if you want to understand where your sparkle really comes from. No casual chatting about our weekend projects. Just Mark and Emily, doing the homework you didn't know you wanted.
New episodes drop weekly. The show is free and is meant purely for entertainment. Give me your email and I'll send each new episode straight to your inbox when it posts.
Episode 1 is live: The Crystal Shift Intro and Swarovski's Exit from the Wholesale Market. Press play below or grab the show in your favorite podcast app.
Drop your email below. I'll send you each new conversation when it posts. That's the only thing I'll ever send you.
One email per new episode. No spam. No selling your address to anyone. The Crystal Shift Podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only.
Join thousands of artists who stopped guessing and started calculating. Scout is on the case.
Start Your Free TrialScout is independent and reader-supported. Subscriptions keep the lights on. Scout also uses affiliate codes and links from suppliers and featured rhinestone artists. When you click through and buy, Scout may earn a small commission, but prices and rankings are never changed for affiliate partners. The cheapest stone always shows first.
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