Dec 3rd: Silicone Phone Case

You've read that right - today we are going to make a phone case completely from scratch! 
If you happen to have a nice little phone that literally no one knows, you'll know the struggle of finding a phone case that suits your phone. And even if you have a "normal" phone, you could take a few minutes to make one that is unique! Well, at least if you can live without your phone for a couple of hours or happen to have a dummy. It will really only take about an hour or two for the case to harden enough to take the phone out again. It's Sunday, you won't need it all day long anyway and even if so you can just make sure to charge the battery, turn it off and leave it to dry over night.
I hope the weather is nice at your place since I would really recommend doing this outside. Or at least in front of an open window. This stuff smells extremely like vinegar (you can believe me, I had tears in my eyes when I did this...!)

Anyway, without further ado, let's get straight into it!

You will need: 

Silicone
Cornstarch
A cartridge gun
Cling wrap
Lots of old newspapers
Latex gloves
A rolling pin (one you use for crafting only)
X-Acto knife
Acrylic paint (optional)

How it's done: 

First, take your phone and wrap it in cling wrap. Try not to add too much volume to the sides and back, but wrap it well since you don't want your phone to be damaged.
Then, spread old newspapers all over your working area and take a bowl you don't care that much about (or if it's not windy you can simply combine the mixture on your newspapers). Pour some cornstarch into the bowl/onto the newspaper and add some silicone. Wearing gloves, take some of the cornstarch and put it on top of the silicone (it should be about half and half, but you'll have to adjust this anyway) before trying to kneed the starch into the silicone. You can put in a drop of acrylic paint now if you want your case to be tinted. The consistency is right when it feels like play dough and doesn't stick anymore. 
Work fast. This stuff dries really quickly. Roll the silicone dough out, wrap it smoothly around your phone (place the back of your phone to the middle of the dough), gather it in the front and lightly press it onto the phone to get any edges right. 
Let it dry for an hour or two or over night. Then take your knife and REALLY CAREFULLY cut out the front part to see your phone's screen. Take it out and cut out a hole for your charger and the camera hole and any other hole there should be. I'd recommend not to cut out holes for the buttons on the sides since it can get pretty tricky to reach the actual buttons, depending on the thickness of your phone case. I've done that mistake, so please guys learn from my mistake. 
That's your basic phone case done. You can alter the design by pressing glittery stones into the dough (or gluing them on later), making a pattern with a toothpick or some clay tools, sculpting a bear or simply painting on a design using acrylic paint (I recommend not to cover it in paint completely... another mistake I did which I regret '^^).
Another idea would be to use this case as a base for making a phone case inside a teddy bear or wallet.

Don't forget to close your silicone cartridge! I don't know if they're like this everywhere, but the ones I have can't be closed airtightly after being opened for the first time. If yours are like that too, take a piece of cling wrap and put it on top of the opening before screwing the cap on. Make sure that you've cleaned the cap thoroughly from any silicone since you won't get that out there once it's dry.

Either way, I wish all of you a happy first Sunday in Advent and hope you enjoy my advent calendar so far. Let me know which crafts you've done with me and I'd really appreciate to see a picture of your projects.