Sticky

    For the past few years, I have set aside Saturdays as DiY Saturdays, or Duct-Tape-it-Yourself Saturdays. My most recent endeavors were decorating binder clips and covering a small box with a Duck Brand floral-print duct tape. Last year, just to see if I could do it, I covered a plastic Whataburger bag with various colors of duct tape (yellow, pink, & orange). The result (as you can see in the picture-collage below) was amazing! The duct-taped tote bag has been holding up quite well. 

 

    The only drawback is that when the duct tape is exposed to hot and humid weather (the norm where I live), it tends to become very sticky (and not the good kind of sticky, either). The remedy was to wrap the handle with a luggage-handle-cover that closes via Velcro. I got that handle cover at a conference several years ago; I had no idea how handy it would become. Now, that bag sits in my office and is filled with containers of markers, colored pencils, Crayons, and other activity-related supplies, including large 11” x 17” blank paper.

    A couple of months ago, I covered another Whataburger “tote” bag with duct tape (this time using purple, green, and paw-print duct tape), but instead of wrapping the entire handle parts with duct tape, I’m going to attach fabric to the handle so that I don’t have to deal with the stickiness of a hot and humid duct-taped handle. Once covered, these tote bags become very sturdy (and a tad heavier) and are able to hold a few jam-packed plastic folders (for my courses). It’s perfect for when I don’t want to lug my rolling backpack from home to work to home to work every day.

    I’ve also dabbled in Washi-tape-crafting, but that is a very thin kind of tape that tears easily, too easily, so I’ve been using that tape for more decorative purposes, such as trim on notebooks, binder clips (the perfect fit for the 2” clips, actually), and other small items.

    Like my mother, I tend to collect various sizes of boxes. I particularly like the boxes that have unique closures, like little flaps that tuck into the box sides. I also get a hankerin’ to cover them with duct tape. I think my first duct-tape-covering project was a Fancy Feast cat food box. I covered it, inside and out, with a solid teal tape and the teal peacock print tape. It looks really good! Another box I covered was a snack box that I cut and turned into a recipe holder. That one sits on the counter beside my microwave oven. When I’m not covering boxes, I’m turning ordinary cardboard toilet paper rolls into useful items: to hold earbuds. I’ve also covered plastic Crystal Light containers and turned them into pencil holders and coin banks. 

 

 

 

 

    I don’t know why duct tape fascinates me so much; perhaps, it’s because they now come in myriad colors and designs, and they practically scream at me to cover something with them. Until another kind of cool tape comes along, I will continue to duct-tape cover whatever floats my boat.