Duct tape roll hurry stash holders for the door: How to make

That moment when you walk out the door, and realize you forgot a set of keys, either to the car, or to that office desk drawer...how often have we had those WTH moments?

You wish your house door sang out a checklist to you before you left.

An option would be to make yourself, a `doorganizer' mini-shelf. I am not talking the wood-worked and expensive variety, but one that will not cost you your purse.

All you need, is the duct tape or hardware work tape ring, in other words roll or cardboard.

This cardboard ring is thick, and can be used for a variety of projects. I have used it, to make a stash for my house keys.

This one can be used as a decorative piece too, to hold tiny toys. The materials you need:

-- Used up roll of a duct tape
-- piece of corrugated cardboard
-- some more decorative duct tape or `cello' tape
-- a pencil
-- self adhesive or double sided tape
-- a pair of scissors
-- 3-D outliners - colour of your choice
-- multi-surface craft glue
-- glue applicator or ice-cream candy stick (optional)

Method:

On the piece of cardboard, use the outer edge of the duct tape roll to draw a circle.

And cut the circle out.

Next, glue this circle to one side of the duct tape roll.

 Let the glue dry out for about an hour.

Use the other pieces of duct tape you have, to cover its inner wall. You may do this either before fixing the circular cardboard piece, or after. I did it before. This plastering may be a little tricky. Do not beat yourself up if the rough edges of duct tape show. Using scissors on this adhesive tape is a hassle too, as it sticks to the tool.

Wrap the outside of this ring, with another decorative duct tape. You can play with colours and patterns here.

After fixing the duct tape, make sure to fill the top rind of the roll with a 3-D outliner.

This will take a while to drive...anywhere between an hour to two. I tried my hand at patching up the inner edges too.

Once it is dry, fix some self adhesive tape to the rear of the base you made with that circle. You can use this for emergency coin supply.

Or,

..as a watch holder.

I fixed it on my door to hold the house keys. True that the market out there has umpteen key holders with their hooks and decor element. But nothing like a home-made shelf sitting on my door.

Alternatively, fix a pair of earrings that you may want to grab on your way out.

Tips:

This grab-it shelf is meant for smaller objects and cannot hold heavy articles. If you need a multi-use one, you will need to make more such shelves.

Wipe off any glue stains on your pair of scissors

Let the 3-D colour squeezed, dry out enough before you use it

Use sufficient double sided tape to firm up the little shelf on your door. Smooth surface doors may be a problem.


Give yourself a pat when you walk out the door the next time. Your keys are right in front of you.

Picture courtesy: Radhika M BFor permissions to re use, write to: radicreative@gmail.com

How to make polymer clay flower cane beads

Clay jewellery's popularity has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years. And so has experimenting with not just clay, but polymer clay too.

For the uninitiated, it could be intimidating - the intricate patterning and craftsmanship involved. What you need is an Oven Toaster Grill, or the OTG oven as it is known. Sankgetha Sripathy who loves to experiment with clay and polymer clay, gives us this easy to follow tutorial to make polymer clay beads. She has used the flower cane in a beautiful combination.

Grab your tools and get set to learn.

You need:

-- an OTG oven
-- pasta making machine
-- polymer clay in a few colours
-- round cutters for the clay, or cookie cutters of different sizes
-- little silver colour balls in jewellery finings
-- a polymer clay knife
-- roller
-- head pins and fish hooks in jewellery findings
-- jewellery pliers
-- jewellery wire

STEPS:

Flatten the lumps of of clay with the roller.

2. Feed the clay into the pasta machine at Setting 8, which Sankgetha says, is the thickest setting on her machine. 

3. One colour should be rolled into a tube, while the other colours need to be used, to cover this.

4. In this picture, she has kept the lavender colour tube of polymer clay ready to be rolled over with white clay. 

Add the gold layer to top it.

5. Once done with the adding of layers, roll the tube between your palms to make it a long one, and use the knife to cut it, into five or six pieces. This, will give you smaller tubes. Here, she has used a contrast of colours for her flower beads.

Sankgetha decided to make flowers using the little tubes that she got out of the long tube. She then organized these tubes into a floral pattern.

 

Notice the piled up tubes she set aside here. The contrasting colour she chose to make the floral design, was a white, that made up her Step 8 of the process.

Step 9: She rolled the white clay into a little tube.

 

 She kept this aside and used the cookie cutters to make separate balls, with the gold coloured clay. 

To set them into the pattern, she used another sheet of the gold coloured clay to roll around the arranged tubes.

This large tube, she cut into two tubes for further slicing. But before anything further, she cut discs with the gold coloured clay.

These need to be kept aside. Using the cookie cutter, she then cut the desired discs from gold coloured clay and rolled them into balls. She sliced the flower tube into little discs that she fixed into these balls. Naturally, your gold ball size needs to be larger than these floral discs to accommodate them.

After fixing the floral diskettes into a ball, you will need to roll it between your palms to give it the perfect round shape. This will ease the cane flower discs settle well into the ball.

Make a whole bunch of such balls. Once they are ready, use tooth-picks or needles to insert holes into them and turn them into beads.

The same method can be used to make white coloured beads too.

These beads, need to be baked in the OTG Oven. Usually, baking instructions are given on the cartons of polymer clay that you buy. You will then need to cool the beads. And they are ready for use in your projects.

She used the jewellery making wire to make a necklace. You can use it or try elastic chords to make bracelets. Use the small silver colour beads as fillers. The headpins and fish hooks shall be used to make earrings.

 

Once you begin your little polymer clay projects, there is no end to your willingness to try more. If you do not have an OTG oven and pasta maker, it would make sense to tie up with those into polymer jewellery already, or get a group of friends to pool in money for one. Do so if you are serious about long term use.

The best feeling you can take away from each of these projects, is that you made your own jewellery. You may use this for gifting too.

Pictures Courtesy: Sankgetha Sripathy

For permissions to use, write to: radicreative@gmail.com

Duct tape earrings with cardboard fliers: How to

Ever received those ad-fliers on the street and wondered what to do with them? A nuisance at times and serving their purpose on others, you cannot escape them. Often we pick them up out of sympathy for people who stand hours in the sun to give them away. They probably earn a pittance.

Once they glare at you at unwanted places in the household, you prefer to trash them.

If you can use some quick thinking and have a thing for the funky when it comes to dressing up, it's possible to make the best use of these.
In this project, I have used a cardboard flier from one of the restaurants near home.

Here it is, a modified version of what I got.

Years ago when I was sick, I used such cardboard, and cardboard from medicine cartons, and that was what prompted me to start work on paper crafts. A single piece of such commercial card paper throws up a million ideas. This time I decided to simply tape them. It is amazing what a strip of duct tape or decorative tape can do. Limit not your creative brain. Go ahead and try this with industrial tape of different colours too.


On another day, I would have cut the pictures out for gorgeous bookmarks. This time though, my roll of gold colour tape came in handy.

So, the materials you need are

-- used flier cardboard or card stock from cartons of toothpaste, medicines or small gifts around home
-- a pair of scissors

-- duct tape
-- small hole punch (a revolving hold punch plier that you get in hardware stores helps) Else, use could use a pin and toothpick although the finish may not be great
-- jump rings
-- earring fish hooks

Optional:  Super Glue or gorilla glue

In a few easy steps, you can get a funky pair of earrings.
Tape the cardboard with enough tape.

What I have here is a thick surface tape. With tape that is thinner, you may need to be careful while cutting and pasting.

Cut the cardboard into squares. Optionally, you may first cut the cardboard and tape each piece.

Use the small hole punch to poke holes on one corner of each of these pieces.

 

Fix a jumpring each for two squares. Now add another square each to these.

Duct tape earrings with cardboard fliers

To these two sets, add a fish hook each.

A problem may arise with these cut pieces. The edges may feel sticky because of the duct tape glue. To set that right, you can lace the edges with the Super glue or Gorilla glue or multi-surface glue, and let them dry out. Your cardboard earrings are ready. 

Do this project on a leisurely afternoon, as a crisis management bit ahead of a party, or simply to indulge kids. The short time needed for this can give you that satisfaction of seeing the results up early. The earrings are light weight. Get over the popular squirm of them looking cheap. They are funky. And you just did your bit, not to throw away cardboard.

Picture courtesy: Radhika M B

For permissions, write to : radicreative@gmail.com