Sticky Fingers Duct Tape Book Offers Easy Bow Making How-To

It’s safe to say you can use duct tape for just about anything. And it’s also safe to say you can make hundreds of craft projects with duct tape! It’s fairly easy to work with for crafters young and old. For many, once you start playing with duct tape, the possibilities – and fascinations – are endless. That’s the premise behind Sophie Maletsky’s book Sticky Fingers: DIY Duct Tape Projects from Zest Books.

Sticky Fingers offers more than 50 projects that range from making your very first duct tape creation to more advanced techniques. The book starts out by going over the basics, like making duct tape strips, adding zippers and how to make duct tape-backed fabric. With the basics under your crafter’s belt, Maletsky takes those techniques and turns them into simple projects. As your child moves through the book, she’ll pick up more and more confidence for working with this sticky fun crafting material.

I appreciate how the projects range from accessories – which are perfect for giving to friends as gifts – to items to keep your child ready for any situation, like Altoid tin first-aid kits and locker organizers. There’s at least one color photo with each project to help guide your child through the crafting process.

When it comes to crafting with duct tape, Maletsky is a pro. Her website, Sophie’s World, offers even more duct tape project ideas for addicted crafters.

To get you and your child in the mood for crafting with duct tape, we’ve got a sample project to share from Sticky Fingers. Creating a simple duct tape bow is a great way to try your hand!

Basic Duct Tape Bow

Excerpted from Sticky Fingers: DIY Duct Tape Projects – Easy to Pick Up, Hard to Put Down by Sophie Maletsky. Web published/reprinted with permission from Zest Books.

There are tons of uses for a duct tape bow. Attach it to a pin and embellish your favorite jacket, tape it to your purse or clutch for some extra flair, or attach it to a choker to make a bow tie. Experiment with different colors and sizes of bows to really play up this fun embellishment.

Notes

  • Difficulty level: 2 (out of 5)
  • Time: 10 minutes

Materials

  • Ruler
  • Duct tape
  • Scissors

Instructions

1. To make a 3-inch-long bow, cut two strips of duct tape, one 6 inches long and one 7 inches long.

2. Lay the longer piece of tape sticky side up on the work surface. Place the shorter piece of tape on top of it, sticky sides together, leaving 1 inch of sticky tape showing on the short end of the longer piece.

3. Fold the short, sealed edge of the tape up to meet the opposite edge of the double thickness. Fold the sticky 1-inch flap of tape down onto it to secure the tape into a loop.

4. Now, cut a strip of duct tape 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch long for the center of the bow. This can be of a contrasting color or pattern, if you like.
5. Find the center of the loop and pinch the top and bottom edges together to form the bow shape. It might help to flatten the loop, fold it in half lengthwise, then fold each of the sides in half again in the shape of the letter “W.” This will help fan out either side of the loop so that it looks more bow-like.

6. Secure the middle of the bow with the strip of tape from step 4. You may want to add a second strip of tape to really hold the bow in place. There you go: a bow!

Tip: A Bow for Every Occasion

If you want to make a bow in a different size, just cut a piece of tape that is double the length of the desired finished bow size. The second piece of tape should be one inch longer than the first.

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