Sticker Bomb
Just a grown man layering stickers on stickers onto a giant sticker and then sticking those onto an iPad folio!
Personalize or pristine? That debate has swirled around in my head for years. I have seen commercials like Apple's 2014 MacBook Air ad many times and thought how cool it would be to put decals all over my Mac, you know, to "make it my own" (whatever that means). But then, a second later, I recoil at the idea of taking an elegant aluminum notebook and sticking what, a crookedly placed superman decal on it? No thanks!
Until now, I've resisted those rare, fleeting moments where I've thought about putting a sticker, or two, or fifty on my Apple devices. It's just not my style; I knew I would very quickly get bored and come to regret my decision.
But recently, an opportunity came along to lean in my ambivalence. My wife's 2018 iPad Pro Smart Folio was damaged, and once we replaced it, the options for what to do with the old folio narrowed down to either tossing it or covering it with a skin.
And it was at that moment; I reconsidered the possibility of sticker bombing the iPad Smart Folio. Nothing to lose: if it worked out, I would have a funky 'new' case for my iPad Air, and if it didn't, well, I was already planning on tossing the case anyways.
The front of my sticker bombed Smart Folio on my desk.
I had amassed a collection of stickers over the years; stickers from breweries, a couple from the Strange Planet series, the Ted Lasso stickers recently handed out, and a collection of indie app stickers that were part of a sticker pack to support COVID-19 relief efforts last year. But the primary source came from Amazon by searching for "Sticker Bomb" and picking up a set of 500-some vinyl stickers for 20 bucks.
Stickers acquired, the next thing to consider was how I would affix them to the case itself. The challenge was that the Smart Folio has three partitions in the front that allow the folio to fold into a stand, and I didn't want the stickers in those folds. Further, for stickers spanning across a crease, I didn't want to affix them and then need to figure out how to cut them so that the knife didn't damage the folio any further.
For that solution, I turned to dbrand and picked up one of their matte skins for the iPad Smart Folio. This method allowed me to layer and precisely cut the stickers the way I wanted onto each partition and then apply the dbrand sheets (covered in stickers) to the front and back of the case.
End Result?
For the bottom-up thinkers out there, an early mistake I made was putting the stickers I liked the most down first. Do the opposite!
The result was not too shabby! For what was a shot in the dark, the outcome exceeded my expectations. Sure it's tacky, and sure many of the stickers are derivative, but it makes for a fun accent case around the home while remaining a function & protective folio when taking the iPad out of the house. Always been intrigued to do it and ultimately glad I did it on a case that I didn't have qualms about damaging further, and all for under $40.
