Personalize Your Cell Phone With Easy Art

This Instructable will explain how to put any design on your cell phone (kind of like a tattoo).

Cell phone mods are cool; paying for factory produced - therefore not unique - mods is not. Completely customize your celly without worrying about seeing someone else with your coolness.

Seriously, modding your cell is kind of retarded, but I was really bored. Plus, this works for putting your tag on almost anything.

I had to redo the design because I didn't do the clear coat at first. It looks kind of crummy because markering on top of dried ink is messy and makes it look dirty. If you do it right the first time your's will look a lot sharper and cleaner.

Step 1: The Right Tools for the Job

Gather the following:

- Fine Point Sharpies of whatever color your want to make your design
- Exacto Knife
- Tape (any normal tape: scotch, masking, etc.)
- Clear coat paint (I'm told that clear nail polish works too)

I went with the fine point, because it's about as detailed as you need to get for anything that people won't be staring at real close. Anything smaller would be more detailed, but probably take forever to draw. Depends on the size of your design too.

You can use different things for a clear coat, I went with the cheap stuff easy to find. I'm not buying nail polish. You can get high heat resistant stuff if you are trying to mod stuff like your engine block. (Of course I wouldn't use sharpies to mod my engine block)

Next step is the stencil...

Step 2: Create Your Stencil

In this step you will create the stencil of your design.

1. Find your design on the internet
2. Print off your design
3. Cut out your design using the exacto knife

If modding a flat surface, use a heavy paper. This will hold keep your stencil stable and strong. I curved my desing around my cell phone so I had to use normal printer paper to bend it.

It is easier to do this for one- or two-colored designs. You will have to do a good amount of cutting and placing to get a multicolored stencil to work right.

The only limitation to your imagination is what you can find on the internet. I suggest Google: image search.

Step 3: Perform the Mod

In this step you will actually draw your design on your surface.

1. Tape your stencil onto the surface
2. Trace the stencil (with your sharpies) as much as you can around the tape
3. Fill in colors as best makes sense before retaping the stencil
4. Retape the stencil in different areas and remove the first pieces of tape
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until complete


Sorry, I forgot to take pictures. Although, if you don't know how to use a stencil perhaps you should stick to your coloring books.

Step 4: Clear Coat

In this step you will protect your design with a clear coat.

1. Wait until the ink is dry. This is important, and it takes awhiile
2. Tape off the edge of the design
3. Follow the instructions on the clear coat paint and paint it
4. Let dry as per clear coat instructions

You're done! Enjoy!

As I said in the intro, I had to re-ink my design, which is why the yellow looks dark and dirty. I also sprayed the clear coat a little too close without letting the ink dry and it created really tiny spots of a slightly brownish color. I notice it since I made this, but no one else will really notice it. Yours should look much sharper and cleaner.

I haven't tagged anything else yet, but I plan too. (That's why I went with the big can of clear coat). I will defenitely tag my motorcycle helmet and some stuff on the inside of my truck. This would also work with spray paint if you didn't need to worry about the mess.