Then she just had to have her pocket camera blinged. Her mother loved the sparkly cell phone, so Aragaki ordered one for her. Then her sister insisted on one as well. And now, Aragaki has ordered custom bling for her son's iPod, making crystal-studded accessories a three-generation trend.

The "Queen of Bling," who painstakingly placed each crystal individually on Aragaki's items, is Dierdre Garland of Manoa, whose home-based business is called Sachi Designs.

Garland was watching "Sex and the City" one evening a few years ago when she spotted Carrie Bradshaw's (the character played by Sarah Jessica Parker) pink crystal cell phone.

"I had to have one. I spent a whole year trying to figure out how to make a phone like hers — and to make the crystals stay put in spite of our heat, humidity, oily hands or accidents such as dropping the phone," Garland said.

Sachi Designs places tiny Swarovski crystals on all sorts of accessories, including cell-phone covers, belt buckles, iPods, cameras and more. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

After months of experimenting with different adhesives, she devised a three-step bonding process.

She blinged her cell phone in flashy pink and silver and found herself mobbed by people "wanting to know where I got my cute phone."

She started blinging phones for friends and family and more requests for custom work came in.

Garland, a former NBA dancer for the Utah Jazz and subsequently a personal trainer, has two boys, Scott, 4, and Ethan, 20 months, becoming a stay-at-home mom after Ethan was born.

But being an active woman, Garland was going a little stir crazy being a homemaker, so she started looking for a home-based business.

As friends and acquaintances increasingly asked for her crystal accessories, a light bulb blinged and she decided to turn her hobby into a business.

She began experimenting with new items to which she could affix crystals: digital cameras, mirrors, compacts, business-card holders, Sidekicks, baby blocks, hairbrushes and belt buckles.

The possibilities seemed endless. Since Garland painstakingly places each tiny crystal herself and applies adhesive with a three-step method, her items are not inexpensive.

Average cost, for example, are $325 for a cell phone, $190 for a business card holder and $425 for a Sidekick.

For the crafter, you can bling your own whatevers by purchasing a "Bling Kit" from Sachi Designs that includes 100 crystals and adhesive (not the same one she uses, however) for $30 to $70. They are sold at T-Mobile inside Shirokiya. Or you can go online to www.blingitontv.com and get a peel-and-stick version for $19.95 or go to www.letscrystalit.com, which uses larger Swarovski crystals and charges $109.95 for a kit to cover a Nokia 1100 phone or $150 for an iPod mini with plastic cover.

While much of her work is done through custom orders at www.sachidesigns.com, Garland also is retailing select items in Palm Springs and Eureka, Calif., as well as in Las Vegas at the Ritz Carlton and Alligator Soup.

In Honolulu, some Sachi Designs are sold at Shasa Emporium and Kahala Kids in Kahala Mall, Mis Fortune in Ward Centre, at the Ihilani gift shop and in Silver Star in Waikiki.

Fashionista Shawnee Hammer of Hawai'i Kai had Garland bling her T-Mobile Sidekick in a floral design and she loves it.

"It's so unique and pretty and different. I get compliments every day." In spite of hard usage and a few itinerant falls, Hammer said the crystals are holding up admirably.

Those who have blinged their own cell phones offer a cautionary warning that the adhesive used is critical. With an item that's handled as frequently as a cell phone or belt buckle, the oils of the hands can easily cause the crystals to come off.