Happy Friday everyone! I'm back today with a really cute and easy tutorial! I also made a video this time, so please give it your support!
I bought a really cheap silicone Head Case phone case from eBay a while ago. It was really cute and it served me well, but after 2 years of use, the paint had started to chip away, leaving the clear silicone case underneath exposed. This really bugged me, and it was getting less and less cute. I wish I'd remembered to take a before picture; before I decorated it the entire face had chipped away!
Here's the stock photo, so just picture it just like this but with half the face missing. 
After being bothered by this for a while I decided it was time to get a new phone case. However, since my phone is a very cheap budget Android phone from years ago, pretty much no one carries cases for my phone anymore. I was able to find a few by searching really hard, but none of them really caught my eye. So, it then occurred to me that instead of throwing away my case, maybe I can use it to create a new super cute one! I began searching for inspiration and decided on a lace up design. Here's how I did it!
Tutorial: Start!!
For this tutorial I used:
- Spray paint (black and clear top coat)
- Soft pink grosgrain ribbon
- (not pictured) Old silicone phone case
- (not pictured) Fine sandpaper (I used 180 grit!)
- (not pictured) Hole punch
- (not pictured) Craft knife
- (not pictured) Lighter
- (not pictured and optional) Charm
To begin, I started by sanding my phone case with a light sand paper. This was both to get rid of the chipping design that was printed on it, and to rough it up so the paint will stick better.
After that, I traced my phone and camera hole, and drew out a template for where the holes should go. I then cut out the holes with my hole punch and laced up the template with my ribbon, so I could place the template over my phone to double check that the ribbon is low enough so that it doesn't interfere with the camera on the back. Once I was satisfied with the ribbon placement, I created a second, more exact template using measurements from the test template as a guide. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures during most of this process, but you can see the video at the end for more detailed instructions!
Once my template was done, I taped it to the inside of the phone case and tried to use my hole punch to cut out the holes. Unfortunately the plastic was too thick, and the hole punch couldn't make it all the way through, but at least it left little imprints where the holes should go, so if I did this again I'd probably still repeat this step, even knowing it won't cut.
After that, I removed the template and used the circular imprints from the hole punch to cut the holes out with my craft knife. It's a little bit tricky but just be patient and cut in small careful strokes! It's okay if the holes are a bit jagged, but try your best to make them even in size and general shape.
Once my holes were cut I then went in with a small lighter along the back of each hole and held it for about 5-10 seconds on each hole to smooth out the edges. I was really shocked by how well this worked! If you have some less-than-circular holes, you can go in with your craft knife while it's still hot and run the blade along the edges to really smooth it out. You will ruin your blade this way, but I have tons of extras so it was okay. 
After that I taped up the inside of the case and went outside to spray paint it, but you should really give your case a nice bubble bath at this point, to remove all the debris from sanding and cutting out the holes, as well as all the grease and dirt that has probably accumulated on your case over the years. This is going to make the paint adhere better and last longer. I forgot to do this step, and now I'm really worried about how long the paint job will last!
Anyway, when painting I gave it 3 coats of black, which was how many coats it took to cover up the scuff marks. Feel free to do more if you can still see the sandpaper marks after 3 coats.
After I was satisfied with the paint texture I sealed it with the clear topcoat.
Once it was all dry, I laced up the ribbon, glued the bow in place, and added a little charm.
And that's it! It took me about an hour in total, and that was while I was experimenting with different techniques and recording a tutorial! So, this is definitely a very fast and easy afternoon project that I think anyone could do.
Finally, here is the YouTube video tutorial. I'm a little disappointed because I didn't realize that my webcam isn't HD. I'll be sure to use my actual camera for higher quality videos in the future. Please have a look and let me see the results if you decide to make one yourself!
Thanks for reading!
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