Tonia Jenny - Duct Tape Discovery Workshop Easy and Stylish Duct Tape Designs

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One single roll of duct tape holds such promise! Much like the possibilities inherent in one skein of yarn or one yard of fabric, once you learn a few basic techniques for working with duct tape (and there really are just a few), the sky truly is the limit. Need a new wallet? Make one from duct tape. Want some new earrings? Make some from duct tape. Wishing you had some trendy coasters for your next party? You guessed it make them from duct tape!

From fashion-forward accessories to sweet and thoughtful gifts; from items to decorate your home to accessories you can use on the go, I know youre going to want to get started today seeing exactly what you can do with duct tape and how easy it is to do it.

Creating these projects really was a journey of discovery for me. I learned that the creative muscle can be pretty prolific when the options are kept to a minimum. To me this meant sticking to tape (no pun intended) as my primary material and carefully deciding if additional items such as paper, plastic or notions were truly necessary before including them. Each of these projects is really all about the impressive quality of duct tape and its ability to offer you, the creator, the freedom to make just about anything you can dream up. From my experience, if it can be made from paper or fabric or several other flexible materials, it can probably be crafted in duct tape.

The things you create with duct tape can be as attractive and as functional as you want them to be. Hopefully this book will get your wheels turning, and youll be inspired to not only create whats in the book, but also to put your own spin on things and maybe even design some projects of your own. Give one project a try and then stick with it!

Yes, working with duct tape is a sticky business. The good news is that you really need to know only a few things about working with duct tape to make great-looking projects. Youll also need just a couple of tools to complete everything in this book:

• cutting mat with a ruled grid (preferably 18 24 [46cm 61cm]) or larger
• craft knife and no. 11 replacement blades metal straightedge
• duct tape (no projects in the book require more than one full roll per color)

For projects youll want to embellish with duct tape (such as circles, letters or other designs), youll also need:

• pencil and parchment paper or
• Spellbinders die-cutting system (optional)

To cut many of the embellishment shapes for the projects, I used a nifty die-cutting system from Spellbinders. I dont know that other systems would work with the stickiness of the tape, but I had great results with Spellbinders. Alternatively, you can certainly cut shapes by hand.

Additional items may vary per project (sometimes youll use eyelets, beads, shrink plastic, jewelry wire and so on), but the call for these items is fairly minimal.

For a list of resources, visit artistsnetwork.com/ducttapediscovery.

A single-sided fabric is one that is left sticky on the back so you can attach it to something else or something else can be attached to it.

STEP 1: Decide what size fabric youll need. For this example, a piece 8 10 (20cm 25cm).

Cut one strip of the tape slightly longer than 8 (20cm) and place it along one line on the cutting mat. Cut a second strip about the same length and position it on the mat so the outside edge is 10 (25cm) from the outside edge of the first strip.

STEP :2 Place a third piece centered between the first two.

STEP 3: Fill in the remaining spaces evenly with strips of tape. Layer them on top of each other with at least 12 (13mm) of overlap.

TIP: Keeping the spacing even between your layers means the visible ridges in the fabric will be even as well.

STEP 4: Aligning the straightedge along the marks that will give you the width you needin this case, 8 (20cm)trim the scraggly edges using a straightedge and a craft knife.

STEP 5: Using the tip of a craft knife, start to remove the fabric from one corner. It should peel up in one piece. This is a single-sided sheet of duct tape fabric.

A lot of projects begin with a double-sided piece of fabric. Think of these pieces as the individual elements youd cut from fabric or paper to create something.

STEP 1: To create a double-sided sheet of fabric, begin with a single-sided piece cut to the dimension you need and position it so its aligned with the rules on the cutting mat, sticky side up.