Victoriana Meets Glam Rock: A Laptop Case Mod Gone Pink (So Many Pictures, OMG)

The Victorians had elaborated decorated photo albums. Books covered with velvet and gold bits and ribbon and frames for special pictures.

http://www.tias.com/stores/victorianlady/pictures/v7885a.jpg

I do not have a photo album. I don't, like, even scrapbook or anything like that. What I do have? Is a laptop.

Three or so months ago, I got this cool pink hard-shell case for my laptop. The actual case of my laptop was getting a little grungy and I wanted something neat to protect it.

http://a248.e.akamai.net/7/248/2041/1554/as-images.apple.com/is/image/AppleInc/TV323?wid=326&hei=326&fmt=jpeg&qlt=95&op_sharpen=0&resMode=bicub&op_usm=0.5,0.5,0,0&iccEmbed=0&layer=comp

And it's been great. I've been happy with it. But the other day we were at the coffee shop and I had this flash of a vision. POM POM TRIM.

Then, you know, things took on a life of their own. I think this is pretty much the polar opposite of unbranding.

The original body of my laptop has not been altered in any way. I've modded PC cases before but, I mean, this is my Mac. That's different. If I really wanted to, I could remove all of this trim and the frame as well.

But why on earth would I want to? *grin* It's like David Bowie went back in time and rocked out with Queen Victoria.

So, the how-to. I started by heading to Joanns and browsing the trim aisle. I left with 3 yards of purple pompom trim and two yards of pink rhinestone trim. That would have been about $20 but I had a coupon so, more likely, it was about $15.

When the first layer was dry, I applied a second layer of pompom trim (which is why I got 3 yards), staggered to fall inbetween the other pompoms. I had quite a bit of trim left - my laptop is the 13 inch. But better too much trim than not enough. This was, like, Aleene's Original Tacky Glue. It's solid but I can remove it if I need to.

Next up, I added hot pink rhinestone trim tape. I knew it was just about the same color as the case I was starting with so that would be cool. Unfortunately, because of how the rhinestones were positioned, I couldn't miter the corners. ALAS. I placed the rhinestone tape over the selvage of the second layer of pompom trim just to clean things up a bit.

This was as far as my original planning took me.

I don't appear to have taken any intermediate photos between the thin purple cable and the silver metallic flat lace. But I'm sure you can imagine! I ran a thin line of glue around the edge of the rhinestone tape and used the thin purple cable to finish that edge. Then I did the same thing with the metallic silver flat lace. It might seem like there's a lot going on there but stay with me for a minute!

But all that empty pink space in the middle, what to do with that? Originally, I thought I'd put a picture in a frame in the middle. Maybe even a picture of apples just to be meta and ridiculous. But the apple glowed so prettily through the pink shell that I couldn't bring myself to really eliminate it.

The picture frame and the silver lacing don't have the exact same finish - that's because the picture frame is actually metal and the flat lace is, of course, just metallic. However, surrounding the frame with the same thin purple cable really pulls it all together.

I can't wait to take this to the coffee shop with me. *grin*