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Awesome $20 Gift for a Kid? Makeover their computer!
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by Jawa Lunk | December 23, 2008 at 03:01 am
312 views | 4 Recommendations | 1 comment
Photos
Times short!
But you still have enough time to get an awesome gift for a kid (or loved one of any age for that matter) for about $20 and have it done by Christmas!
I took my Granddaughters old beat up, gnarly looking Packard Bell computer, and made it into something she will LOVE!
And it only cost me about $20 and a days labor!
Here are the simple steps I did to make the computer in the pictures.
- Find out what the person receving the gift loves...in this case it was Disney Princesses
- Get your supplies...for this I went to the toy isle and picked up a Disney Princess coloring book with stickers, then went to the paint isle and purchased 3 cans of paint which matched as closely as possible to the main color theme for the Disney Princesses, then to the crafts isle to pick up a pack of jewels, and masking tape. All of this I purchased at Walmart.
- I already own a hot glue gun, but if you don't I needed one for this project...but if you are not attaching anything like jewels to the case and monitor, you will not need a glue gun.
- I masked off the screen of the monitor, keys on the keyboard, back of the computer, and the lights on the front of the monitor and computer tower. Basically everything you don't want painted.
- I chose a simple color scheme, alternating the dark and light colors on different components so they would contrast each other.
- After you paint, allow it to dry thoroughly. The paint I purchased said it dried in 15 minutes...but was still soft. If you can, allow a few hours after painting before you go to the next step.
- After drying, I took the stickers from the coloring book I purchased, and placed them all over the computer. Little girls like stickers and jewels...so use them liberally.
- I used the hot glue gun and glued the jewels all over the monitor, keyboard and tower. I was even lucky enough, that there were a few jewels the exact same size as the power button on the monitor and computer.
- (OPTIONAL) When I was done, I took the computer back downstairs to my paint booth (which I have because I build robots), and covered the entire computer and monitor and keyboard with a high gloss clear coat.
- Remove the masking...you are done!
SIMPLE!
Plus, if you choose to, you can go the extra mile like I did, and I downloaded my favorite Windows skinning program 'Windowblinds' and put a princess type theme on windows.
All this cost me approximately $20, and it will be a great gift that she is going to LOVE!
I did the same thing for my daughter for her birthday last march, and themed her computer for Spongebob Squarepants.
That one cost a little more because I purchased a Spongebob mouse and mouse pad.
But still a very affordable and memorable gift!
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 03:13 on December 23rd, 2008
I'm back!
After a glitch in the system, everything I have posted from articles to comments between 12-18-08 and 12-22-08 have been lost to cyberspace.
So here is the article I posted about 1 hour before the fall...
I am not going to try and find all the articles I added comments to, and try to remember what I wrote and replace them.
Nor am I going to re-post any of the other articles that were eradicated.
But, being the webmaster of The Wall-E Builder's Group which now has nearly 2,500 members, I know how mistakes can happen, so, moving on...I will return to making my regular posts!
Thank you to Jordan Yerman for his help in returning me to posting!