Oh boy, is this a doozie.
It's no secret that I love me some gadgets and my iPad is one of the most prized pieces in my techie quiver. I have the iPad 2, and protect it with a cute plastic case and a simple smart cover. Now, we all know those smart covers have limited color options, especially when you're the crazy lady who waited in line to buy the iPad the first day (yes, that was me). So, I had the coolest gadget in the world covered with one of the ugliest colors ever (ok, maybe not the ugliest ever, but not my cup of tea). Yeah, clearly something had to be done.
So why not paint, right? I mean, people paint tea towels, leather purses and who knows what else, so why not a smart cover? Oh, how wrong I was.
I settled on an oh-so-chic chevron pattern and got to work carefully making a template,
which involved serious number crunching
then it was on to measuring,
and taping,
and painting,
veeeerryyy carefully
with a little help from the Poats dog and a head lamp.
Then I sealed with modge-podge to make it stick and
got it looking so so good...
I was so confident/excited about this project I took 80 photos. Seriously.
Then I used it. F to the A-I-L. Cracked City, USA. Here is how it looks after 3 weeks of use:
Now, it's not thaaaaaat bad. It still functions as a smart cover after all. But it's cracked, and chipping, and not exactly chic. The major place I went wrong is painting over the creases where the cover bends. I think if I had incorporated those into my design so they remained the original light blue, it would have fared much better, but who knows. The paint also may have been an issue; I used acrylic paint, and maybe if I had used something meant to have a little give I'd have an EPIC craft instead of a FAIL craft. Either way, now that the smart cover personalization seal has been broken, I'm thinking of maybe decoupaging it? We'll just have to see how that goes.
Anyone else a resident of the World of FAIL Craft?
:-( Awwwww, you did such a great job with your zigzags, too!
ReplyDeleteYou could take a Q-tip, dip it in acetone or some paint remover, and rout out the guttters where the paint wasn't flexible, leaving your pretty zigzag pattern just on the panels... Maybe.
What is the cover made out of? Like a flexible polymer of some sort? You might be able to use a paint that's specifically for flexible plastics, though one doesn't come to mind immediately. Krylon for plastics, maybe - and choose the spray so that the paint is dispersed more evenly in tiny little dots of color (rather than swathes put on bu a paintbrush) so the cracking isn't such an issue. You could always drag the cover to Home Depot or a paint store or something and ask the pros which paint you should use, or Google "flexible plastic paint." Decoupage might run into the same problem where the sealant cracks at the seams too.
Hope you find a good solution - the design looks so pretty! And thanks for linking to my bag-painting tutorial!!:-D
xoxox
Carly
Thanks for the tip! I'm definitely thinking of looking for some flexi-paint, I'll have to do a little google leg work. As for the decoupage, I was thinking of maybe doing some fabric and leaving it some leeway on the creases. I'll have to do some testing when I get that far.
ReplyDeleteAnd, btw, I love that purse you made! So awesome!! :)
Oh no! It looked SO great too! Mannnnnn. I only have the iPad 1, but I've stared at the plain black apple case many a time wondering if i could jazz it up somehow. I think you just convinced me to not bother. What a bummer! Your chevrons were PUR-FECT. Dang it.
ReplyDeleteOh man, I wish I could get back all those minutes I spent doing the math. Get 'em next time!
ReplyDelete