Have you ever wanted to have something custom? Something made so it’s uniquely yours, and different from all other versions of that thing/ Some people customize their cars, or have custom jewelry designed, or have clothes made that are one of a kind. I get this urge every once in a while, but I often ignore it. Not this time.

This time I went for it. My PC was going to have an Autobot badge on it. Spray painted and messy, like it had been applied hastily in the war with the Decepticons.

The first step was the stencil. I’d tried making one before, and I’d ended up with some mixed results. So I took a good friend up on his invite to a crafternoon, and set to work. I tried jigsawing through thin wood, but it snapped when one cut got too close to another. Plan B was gluing two sheets of card stock together, then gluing the outline to that. An x-acto knife did the work of making the holes, and the stencil was ready!

It had been so long since I’d spray painted that I was basically starting over. Wait, had I ever used spray paint before? I had to have. Well, the primer/paint mix worked really, really well. It covered great, and two coats was probably a little too much. I had made one mistake, though, and MonkeyLinkMega saw it right away. I’d left the stencil at 8.5″ x 11″, rather than squaring it up more tightly around the symbol.

He had a solution, as well. He suggested taping over the symbol, and then going over it in blue. I used painter’s tape to make the square, and hit it with a light-ish (probably heavier than I wanted) spray and let it dry. It looked SO much better! But I wasn’t satisfied with it. Not yet. It needed just a little bit more.

I taped again, even tighter around the symbol, and did a very light spray of red. That did it. It was just what I wanted.

You may have asked yourself why I usually ignore the urge to customize my things. I’ve got a story to tell about that, so stay tuned for a blog post down the line.