Customize Your Plain, Old Mouse

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Today I will teach you how to take an old, boring mouse and give it a custom, personal look. It will incorporate your unique handprint in a simple, elegant design.

For this project you will need:
An old computer mouse
A small piece of about 150 grain sand paper
A fine point sharpie
A piece of plain, white paper
A black washable marker or stamping ink
A pencil

The first step is simply to sand the mouse with the sand paper to remove the glossy surface and the mouse's logo.

Step two is to put your hand in whatever position you want (I put mine in the position I use the mouse with) and trace it in pencil. Once this is done you may need to clean up your lines. You then use the fine point sharpie to go over your pencil line. This is when the difficulty begins, as sharpie lines are hard to remove.

Now it is time to start the freehand drawing. I first colored each of my fingers with the washable marker, and made fingerprints on a blank sheet of paper. I used these as models of what I was drawing on the mouse with the sharpie. When I drew the fingerprints, I found it helpful to draw identifying features first, such as loops or whirls, then drawing the other lines. One thing to look out for is to not color outside the lines, as permenent marker is hard to remove.

Next I finished up drawing the lines of the rest of my fingers. These lines were easier so I just looked at my finger then drew them. After I was done with the fingers I drew the palm of my hand. This was harder than the fingers, as the mouse I used curved for most of the palm. I found as long as I took my time, it was not so bad. I took the distinct feature (three deeper lines) and made them first. I then drew the other lines around them.

Once Step five is complete and dried, this mouse is finished. If you wanted to you could also put a clear coat of paint to insure the sharpie does not wear off, but I have not had problems yet.
If you liked this Instructable, or if you didn't, please vote for my project.
Go Team Mouse!