DIY Decoden Phone Case

I know that I'm a grown adult and I probably shouldn't be doing ridiculous things like carrying around a cell phone that looks like someone barfed up candy onto it, but at this point I don't care. It's just way. too. cute. Back in the days of flip phones I used to hang adorable Japanese charms and super glue Swarovski crystals all over my phone, so nothing has really changed. I am, so my husband says, a 7 year old stuck in a 29 year old's body.

Since the iPhone came out I was a little sad that I couldn't put charms on it and make it cute. Most of the cases were just "eh." The most I saw was those little dust caps that go into the headphone jack and have charms attached to it. It's a pretty good idea but I needed more. Then I stumbled upon decoden! It was just as ridiculously cute as I needed it to be.

"Decoden" is a craft where people adhere cute little charms called "cabochons" to things using a silicon cream. The cream can be bought in different colors and many people just use caulking from the hardware store. You pipe it on the item you are decorating with an icing bag and icing tip to make it look like cake icing or whipped cream. Then you place cute charms on it along with pearls, rhinestones or anything else you want. 

I ordered my charms from Happy Kawaii Supplies on Etsy and I was really happy with it. You can order the clear case, the cream, charms, and anything else you would need.

Supplies You'll Need:

Clear phone case (or any color you want as long as it is a slim and minimal case)

Nail file or sandpaper

Puff paint

Pearls, rhinestones, micro beads, glitter or polymer clay sprinkles.

Piping cream (silicon cream, caulking or Mod Podge Collage Clay)

Icing bag and large star tip

Cabochons

Tweezers

The first step is to gather your supplies.

Then take your nail file and scratch up the top of the clear case so that the cream will stick to it a little better. Don't worry, you won't see it after you are done. Don't scratch up the sides of the case though. Now take out your cabochons and see what you want to use. I chose a sweets theme and purchased the large 25 piece assorted sweets pack so I had many options. I also got two large pink bows to use as the main focal point.

Arrange the pieces on the case approximately where you want them to go and take a photo with your phone so you can refer to it later. This is very important since you don't want to make a mistake and mess up your nice piping work.

Take your puff paint in whatever color you would like. I chose the Scribble Pop "Hot Chocolate" so it would look like chocolate sauce. You can do strawberry sauce, green ooze or even a blood color if you're into that. "Pastel Goth" is a thing, right?

Drizzle the puff paint onto the edges of the case to look like it's melting. You can purchase hot glue in various colors and do this with a hot glue gun if you want to. It hardens faster that way too! I chose puff paint and I like the results, but be careful not to touch it as it dries for a few hours. I added some rhinestones and polymer clay sprinkles around the camera area since I have to keep that part clear of the cream. 

These clay sprinkles were a great buy! It was a last minute addition to my cart and I'm glad I got it.

The only thing disappointing was that the light purple "simulation cream" I ordered was in too small of a tube to cover my entire phone case. Also the icing tips it came with were very small. I decided to use this for another project and went out to Michael's to pick up Mod Podge Collage Clay. It comes with enough cream for a ton of projects, comes with three large icing tips and you can get it in "Vanilla" (white)  or "Strawberry" (pink) and it only cost $9. I'm really happy this exists!!!!! Mod Podge had a whole new collection of products that I was happy to see too, including puff paints in brown, pink and red, and hot glue sticks in similar colors, I assume for projects just like this one.

Pipe the cream on your case and add your charms, sprinkles and everything else! Let it dry for a day or two before touching it.

I just love the little strawberry dipped pretzels! And the biscuits!! I should have ordered some more clear cases. I feel a collection coming on...