Reader Show & Tell: Quick and easy Sony Vaio P personalization
Decals are one of the fastest and most affordable ways to customize your favorite gadget. Just find a design you like, peel off the backing, and stick it wherever you want. The problem, however, is that the end result can sometimes ruin the aesthetics of the device, and peeling off the stickers when you tire of them can often leave behind ugly residue.
Ann, a Pocketables reader from Maryland, has avoided both issues by applying a nice set of Japanese decals and Swarovski crystals designed for cell phones onto the removable protective film she had on the lid of her six-month-old Sony Vaio P.
Ann uses her Vaio P a lot and says she "lives with it," firing it up for writing fiction, web browsing, and uploading pictures on the go. She's used artistic protective skins like Schtickers and GelaSkins on her devices before but says that the P "seemed to beg to get dressed up for a night out" and she "didn't need to spend hundreds on a crazy custom Sony or a fancy Vaja case to do it."
This is Ann's story, in her own words:
I'd been shopping in Tokyo and seeing a lot of really fantastic fingernail art, where they do a similar design job. It's the same sort of applique process, right down to adding crystals. So I thought, why not try dressing my P up with the designs available for cellphones? I thought the decals were big enough, and the P small enough, to make something good.
The decals and gems are by Hotsuma Aesthete. The larger lacy set was 1500 yen ($16) and the Swarovski crystal gems, three sizes, were about $2 for a packet of 12. The decals (they're called keitai makie, cell phone makie) included instructions on what sizes of the gems to buy, as there seems to be a standard for diameter.
It took about half an hour to cut everything out and apply it. I took some measurements from the edge of the glossy protective film I already had on the lid so things lined up well. They applied like screen films; a bottom strip came off to expose the sticky part, then the top strip came off to leave the design. The top part was tricky, and I used tweezers to make sure none of the design came up with it. The gems were easy, applied with tweezers.
The lid protector should lift right off, with the bling intact, if I do it carefully. As the bling is pretty solidly on when it's applied, this seemed to be a good way to be able to restore the computer to factory if I got tired of it.
Many thanks to Ann for sharing her dressed up Vaio P with us!
Have something cool to show off? Get in touch and tell me about it. Your gadget story could be featured in the next Reader Show & Tell right here on Pocketables.
