If the case is in bad shape (which is the only condition I am advocating), it doesn't much matter whether one paints it or not should one later decide to change one's mind. Once painted it's far easier to sand and re-paint. Cloth sounds a bit like wallpaper versus painting your walls. Wallpaper being a far bigger pain in the butt. That said, I think a cloth covered Mac would be a very interesting and stylish texture. Leather would be an interesting treatment as well.
That is exactly right Bunsen. Well said ... it is a bad idea in any event and one that promotes these machines as mere novelties which can serve no other useful purpose. The entire project aspires to utilize all of the Mac's parts in the design. Though clever, what I think is truly ironic is that the mouse, keyboard and cables are necessary to install and set up the software that makes the face. If that's the only mouse, then gluing it to the case is just stupid. And if that is the only keyboard cable, it too is rendered useless. I'm actually surprised the guy didn't find a way to hack up the keyboard and glue its parts onto the case. A much more elegant approach is to attach the mouse with velcro so that it remains functional. And friggin go to Radio Shack and buy phone cables to make the vines if you want them. I maintain painting them is OK, so long as the case is not restorable, even a 128K or 512K, many of which are brittle and yellowed beyond restoration.
While I said earlier I would rather someone cleaning out their garage turn their old compact into a Mac-O-Lantern than throw it into a landfill with their broken skis, I think this kind of thread really defines the mission of 68K MLA, which is to make sure that same person who stumbled across the Mac-O-Lantern on a blog somewhere, instead gets the message that they may have something of value in their garage and not to be so hasty to judge its worth as useless. By that same token, these unscrupulous vendors on eBay as well as those same novices at home, should equally be aware that even if that Mac in their garage is in poor condition and therefore incapable of fetching top dollar, projects like the Mac-O-Lantern is one way to rejuvenate them and again keeping them out of the landfill.
Then there's this, for when the case is beyond even painting:
http://blog.makezine.com/pic19.jpg