Tired of the basic look of your laptop? Vinyl skins not fitting in your budget? Whatever your case maybe, I am here to instruct you on how to create your very own laptop skin. You can be as creative as you want with this project and by no means do you have to just settle for what I did. Get crafty with it!

By the way, this is my first Instructable so bare with me you guys. lol

Here it goes....

Step 1: Gather Your Supplies

Needed Materials for the laptop skin (the colorful owl was added after the skin application):

- Laptop or tablet

- Decorative Duct Tape (Local Target about $3)

- Scissors (Dollar Tree $1)

- Hobby Knife (Xacto Knife) [Local craft store [$2]

OPTIONAL
I wanted a little extra touch so I added a cute owl. The owl was actually an iron-on transfer for t-shirts but I thought it would go better with my laptop skin. Of course the iron on transfer does not have any adhesive, so I used double sided tape to adhere it to the laptop. You can substitute with decals, stickers, bumper stickers, etc. I just had this iron-on lying around my craft closet.

Step 2: Time for the Duct Tape!

First, clean your laptop with a warm water & soap, wet wipe, etc. Then, wipe down with a dry cloth to ensure the laptop lid surface is completely dry.

Now, get your duct tape and apply one strip from one corner of the laptop outer lid to the opposite corner; horizontally. For an example, if you start at upper left hand corner, apply the strip all the way to the upper right hand corner. Allow some extra allowance at the ends of each strip. Continue this process until the entire lid is covered or until you reach your desired look.

Once you have applied the strips securely and air bubble free, then take the ends of each strip and fold and adhere them to the inside of the laptop lid. Of course do not adhere the tape to the screen, just around the inner edges of the screen. View the pic below for an example.

By the way, you can cover the hinges and other openings/gaps. The hobby knife will take care of this.

Make it Neat:
Now it's time to clean up any excess tape.
Using the hobby knife, remove extra tape from edges, hinges, gaps, etc.
Depending on your device will determine where you do your clean up

YOU'RE DONE WITH YOU SKIN. SIT BACK AND ADMIRE YOUR BEAUTIFUL WORK! =D

Step 3: Optional Extras! Too Cute!!!

I love to jazz things up and make it my own; you know one of a kind. So I decided to add a huge owl to the front lid as well as laptop decals to the keyboard/mouse surface.

To apply the iron on OWL transfer, I needed:
-Iron on Transfer
-Double Sided Tape
- Scissors

The owl was too big to fit properly on my laptop so I had to chop it's tail off . =(
The iron transfer is not sticky so I used double sided tap to adhere it to the lid.
Apply it and you're done!

Now the laptop decal on my keyboard surface was purchased at my local Walmart (in the laptop section back in electronics) for about a $1 on clearance!

I placed the decal in the desired positions and cut any extra decal away from my mouse pad and keyboard using the hobby knife.
Took me all of about 2 minutes to do this. Very cute and creative.