Of the crafting tools I own and use, tape is probably one of my all-time favorites. It’s so incredibly versatile. Tape lends itself to “out of the box” thinking for a variety of crafts and stuff around the house. Just looking around, I found these weird ways I’ve used it recently:
1. Binding the edge of needlework. Yeah, I know. Good needlework artists would never stoop to putting tape on a raw edge. They would whipstitch a hem around their fabric. I’m not that girl. I grabbed my blue painter’s tape. After all, when the piece is finished, I plan to treat the raw edge with Fray-Check, trim it shorter, turn it under, and use iron-on seam binding to complete my work.
2. Keeping my power cord plugged in. This Dell computer of mine is nearly brand-new. I got it in January. But the battery isn’t recharging, and if the cord pops out, the computer goes….roadkill. After two hours on the phone, Dell and I have determined this little puppy needs to return to the factory. But I can’t live without my laptop! So that’ll have to wait until I’m back in Florida where I can use my desktop computer.
3. Holding that stupid flap up. These Brita water jugs are great for filtering water, but the person who engineers their design should be taken to an abandoned country road and shot. Honest to Pete. This SLF (stupid little flip) has a habit of falling closed and sticking, which causes water to run all over the place. I got tired of the hassle. Two inches of masking tape and the problem was solved.
4. Laminating on the fly. All of us have special talents. Mine happens to be finding four-leaf clovers. I used to dry them in books, but then I’d forget about them. Now I “laminate” them by using packing tape and sticking them to index cards. It’s not as sturdy as the REAL lamination, but it’s fast, cheap, and easy.
5. Tagging cords. Because I move back and forth between Florida and Washington, DC, tracking power cords is a hassle. Using a piece of bright green tape, I tagged this iPhone cord. Now it’s easy to find, and best of all, when I pack it up, I know I haven’t stolen my husband’s cord.
Okay, here’s a story I’ve never told anyone. Twenty years ago I was invited up to 3-M, the makers of Scotch tape, to talk about how they could do better in the scrapbook market. I suggested they product tape with designs on it.
“Designs? Like, patterns?” the product expert asked. (She was trying NOT to roll her eyes.)
“Right. Like cute little patterns, geometric patterns, colors.”
“How would scrapbookers use that?” The product expert looked dubious.
I could think of a million ways.
So the next time you use a patterned adhesive tape, wear a little smirk in my honor, OK?
Tell me what you use tape for and I’ll give one lucky person a digital copy of my newest book, Happy Homicides 5: The Purr-fect Crime. I’ll choose a winner one week from today.
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About the author:
Joanna Campbell Slan is full of crazy ideas that sometimes see fruition. When not taping stuff up, she’s writing. You can buy a copy of Happy Homicides 5: The Purr-fect Crime for only 99 cents by going to bit.ly/2HH5Purr – but hurry, because the price will go up later this month.
4 comments:
We used packing tape today to tape up some cardboard so the neighbor children could use the cardboard as sleds to slide down our steep hillside they had a ball out of the house no electronics plain old fashioned play
I use Post-It tape to label my leftovers in the fridge.
I too bind my cross stitch canvas with painters tape, leaves no residue. I also use it to attach my batting to my quilt frame and...oh so many uses I have at least 4 rolls in my sewing room.
My charging cords have tape with the device name marked on the charging end. I use painters tape on the edges of a large sheet of clear X-ray plastic to keep from going off the edge and onto the quilt top while drawing quilting designs with a erasable marker. Also the 1" size blue tape is great for those long diagonal or straight quilting lines across the whole width of a quilt and can be repositioned easily for the next line. You have no marks to erase or wash out after you are finished quilting. You can see many ways I use tape in the kitchen and my sewing room. It stays on better than sticky notes in many cases. Items that go to retreat with me have my initials somewhere on them with various colors of tape (naturally mine are purple). lol I could name many more uses in our home -- my DH has a years supply of duct tape for his hobbies.
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