Custom gold foil neoprene laptop case tutorial

I've survived blogging for five years without feeling like I need a laptop, but the need has become real, and we ordered a chrome book for me to use for blogging just a few weeks ago.

I have several trips coming up for blogging in the next few months and it's getting harder and harder for me to keep up with blogging from my PC.  While I still very much prefer the old school ways of sitting in my den typing on my computer, I have started to get used to being portable.

My husband {with the consult of several computer guru's} questioned me on what I needed a laptop to do and then they decided on the best computer for me.  Because to be quite honest I walked into a store, started playing around with laptops and could have bought any of the the ones that were placed in front of me and been quite happy.  I'm thankful for people that know more than me and are willing to do the research because plainly, I just don't care.

My sweet husband also started clicking on accessories for me {a mini mouse that I have yet to use} and a black neoprene laptop case.  Not one for plain, I decided to fancy up my new laptop case with some custom gold foil geometric shapes and I'm here to share the tutorial with you.

How boring is this laptop case?  My husband is an engineer so function is always his first thought. Not so much mine.  I immediately started thinking of ways that I could make this case my own and make it not quite so boring.

I had an idea in my head and started wandering the aisles of Hobby Lobby because that's what everyone does when they need inspiration right?

I found this huge assortment of Deco Foil in the stamping aisle {though it says it's for fabric}. I went back and forth trying to decide if the technique I had in mind would work with these materials and I finally settled on getting the deco foil adhesive and gold deco foil.

My original idea was to create a freezer paper stencil like this but I did some reading and wasn't sure I could iron on the stencil to the neoprene, so I went with the image that I created in my Silhouette software and cut it out of wax paper using my Silhouette machine.  

Wax paper likes to roll, so I ironed it on a low setting to help keep it flat.

 Once the wax paper was ironed, I placed a clip board {you can use anything hard to keep your bag stiff} inside the bag and laid my stencil down where I wanted it.

I carefully used the deco foil transfer adhesive according to the directions and filled in the stencil. I carefully removed the wax paper stencil and put my case in a safe place to dry.

The instructions say that the deco foil adhesive takes 30 minutes to dry.  I found that they are liars. I actually let the adhesive dry over night.  You are looking for the milky adhesive to turn clear.

Once the adhesive turns clear, carefully place the foil paper on top and use a firm finger to rub on the adhesive to transfer the foil.

This is a close up of the finished project.  I actually did this technique on both sides of the bag, so the whole process with drying time, ended up taking several days.  It's not a slow process, but the end results were worth it.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I certainly made it my own don't you think?

Now I'm wondering what else I should put gold foil on.  I'm thinking a t-shirt.  Stay tuned!