How to Make Your Own Custom Skins & Wraps for Anything

When you make a big investment in a smartphone, laptop, gaming console, or some other special device, you expect it to stand the test of time. Unfortunately, many of today's most popular products are highly vulnerable to wear and tear. Scratches, in particular, are common. These can mar the otherwise pristine appearance of treasured items — and in some cases, seemingly minor damage can all but destroy functionality.

Thankfully, it's possible to protect a wide variety of products from scratches and other common issues. Vinyl skins could be your best option; not only do they protect important items, they allow you to personalize your favorite devices. Best of all: they're easy to create and apply.

What You Can & Can’t Wrap In Vinyl

Unfortunately, not just any product can be wrapped in vinyl. Although vinyl serves as a valuable form of protection for many types of materials, it is ill-suited for others.

Limitations may be imposed by a given item's shape, structure, or surface. Rough or rusted surfaces, in particular, are problematic, as they make it almost impossible for otherwise easily sticking vinyl to adhere. Likewise, items featuring complex shapes or unusual dimensions may not be ideal, although cast vinyl options can sometimes work for such products. Often, curved shapes — especially spheres — are difficult to wrap, as they can prompt a surprising degree of distortion. MightySkins to the rescue! We can create custom-fitted skins for difficult to wrap products such as game controllers, drones, earbuds and AirPods, medical devices such as glucose monitors, HydroFlasks and more.

What Does Vinyl Film Stick To?

Despite the limitations highlighted above, vinyl film can easily attach to and protect a wide variety of materials. When in doubt, smooth, relatively flat surfaces work best. That being said, vinyl film may attach to some materials you assumed were out of reach. This versatile option is ideal for:

• Rubber
• Plastic
• Tiles
• Silicone
• Polyurethane
• Wood
• Primer

Great Vinyl Wrap Ideas

Vinyl protection is often thought of as a natural solution for smartphones and laptops. Its value certainly doesn't end there, however. If the materials highlighted above provide any indication, vinyl wraps can be used in almost every area of your day-to-day life. Top options include the following:

• Smartphones & phone cases
• Laptops
• Tablets
• Gaming devices & controllers
• Vapes
• Drones
• Tumblers & coolers
• Wearable tech
• Medical devices
• Earbuds & headphones
• Smart home devices
• Hoverboards
• PopSockets
• Guns

Whether vinyl wraps serve a purely functional purpose for valuable devices or are intended to personalize items and boost aesthetics, they are well worth the modest investment.

How to Make Your Own Custom Skins & Wraps

Custom skins and wraps are surprisingly easy to create and use, even if you're completely new to the concept. Once you understand how to make your own laptop skins and other types of wraps, you'll be eager to create customized looks for a variety of your favorite items. Follow the steps outlined below to get started with MightySkin’s Custom Skin Creator.

Step 1: Choose Your Product

The first and easiest step for creating a custom wrap: choosing the right product. Electronic devices are typically constructed from smooth materials such as plastic, glass, and aluminum, so they are perfect candidates. You don't need to exclusively make your own phone skins, however. As long as the shape of the item isn't too complicated and the surface isn't too rough, you should be able to take advantage of custom skins.

Step 2: Add An Image

Once you've decided which of your treasured possessions warrant protection and customization, you can move forward with adding favorite images. You can upload your own or choose from a design in our collection.

Keep in mind that copyrighted logos, characters, or other artwork cannot be used unless permission has been granted by the copyright holder.

After your image has been uploaded, you'll be tasked with adding a background color behind it, as well as any text you may want included on the image itself. The final step involves scaling the completed image to the appropriate size — and then moving and rotating it into the proper position so that it looks exactly as you've imagined.

Step 3: Add Text or Monogram

Your chosen image may already include text, but more can be added if you desire. Feel free to integrate text above, below, or around your selected image. Examples could include important dates or favorite quotations. This customization option can instantly lend extra meaning to an already special wrap design. Otherwise, feel free to take the wrap's sophistication to the next level with a monogrammed look. As with images, you'll want to scale and rotate text and monograms based on your unique preferences.

Step 4: Preview the Design

After putting the final touches on your design, preview the finished product to make sure the colors are correct and the sizing is accurate. Take a closer look at your selected image and text layout to ensure that you're happy with the design's general appearance. At this point, you can still make changes if desired. This simple step will ensure that the final product matches your grand vision.

Step 5: Check For Image Requirements

Unfortunately, not all images will cut it for custom wraps. As mentioned previously, express permission from the owner is required for copyrighted material. Additionally, you'll want to think carefully about the resolution of the image. Poor resolution will lead to an inferior wrap, no matter how much you love the intended design. When in doubt, higher resolution is always better. As long as your file falls within the maximum size of 15 MB, you should have no trouble submitting a high-resolution image.

As you seek out ideal images for your custom wrap, aim for high-quality JPEG or PNG options. These formats are commonly used by a variety of image uploaders because they offer better compression while still maintaining reasonable file sizes. CMYK colors are also preferable, as they dramatically improve accuracy to ensure that the final product matches your expectations. There's no need to worry about color limitations; CMYK produces a wide range of lovely hues.

Finally, the content of the image itself should be acceptable. At MightySkins, we are unable to fulfill requests containing nudity. Other sexually explicit images are also off limits. Likewise, we will not accept anything that includes hateful or defamatory material designed to discriminate against any group. We pride ourselves on producing wraps featuring positive messages and beautiful designs.

Get Started with MightySkins

Ready to get started? Visit our Create Your Own Custom Skins page to begin the process. You'll quickly realize how easy it is to create your own skins, and that you're equally capable of customizing wraps intended for a variety of other devices and products. Don't hesitate to contact us to learn more about our wide range of offerings.