Sweet PURSE-on!

Ok, so I'm a little weird, anyone reading this blog that knows me personally, I'm possitive, isn't shocked! My mom didn't like her purse, she had it for a while and it didn't work right for her, plus, like all my purses, the straps started to rip. She was going to throw it away, but it wasn't that old and just the straps were ripping, the rest of the purse was still good. I couldn't figure out what I was going to do with it, but I knew I didn't just want to fix the strap, I wanted to revamp that whole purse. Much to my husband's chegrin, I like to be a little flashy and colorful, that's just sort of my personality! I have to surpress it so my husband will walk with me, but I still have ways for some of it to come out! I was putting away some of my craft stuff and trying to think of something that I could do with my colored Duck Tape (yes, DUCK! I recently found out that when it was invented for the army in WWII it was nicknamed DUCK tape, it later became Duct Tape after the war.) Then it hit me and I came up with this...

Yes, I covered a black purse in black and lime green duck tape! My husband wasn't too mortified when I showed him! It makes me happy! You know those things that when you look at them there is just something in your minds that makes you smile? I have a whole bunch of those things, but this is my most recent! I haven't gotten the hang of this whole craft blogging and I was halfway through when I thought, I should have taken a before photo! Oh well, I didn't change the shape of the purse, you can probably picture the way it was before pretty easily!

HOW TO: Not being used to blogging my crafts yet, I forgot to take how to pics, but it's not really all that hard, let me try to explain. Good luck as I'm notoriously bad at giving directions...

Just take a length of duck tape, it really doesn't matter how long, but I started with long strips all going one way and then added some going different ways to add dimension and have that "duck tape" look. If something was too long for what I had intended, I would rip it off and put the little scrap piece just out there on some little place that I had already finished. I never cut it, I just rip the tape as it will gum up your scissors and won't cut it anyway. Again, it all adds to the look! The easiest way is to get your length of tape, figure out where you want it, then smooth out the area that you want to put the tape on, as flat as possible so you can put the tape on easier, and the tape stays more flat and doesn't bunch up. Just make sure that every part of the purse is covered, and don't cover up any hardware (like clasps, hooks or zippers. You don't need to do the inside of the purse as it's a finished purse. Just do the outside.

When doing the pockets, I just make sure when I'm doing the black to go just a little way up on the pocket. Then when I did the green I just went to the edge of the pocket and just made sure to make a semi straight line. on the top of the pocket just tuck it in just a little to make sure to coat the top of the pocket with tape.

OPTIONAL: Some thoughts I had to embellish, but my husband couldn't handle it so much. Duck tape flowers! Take wax or butcher paper, cover with one layer of colored ducktape on one side and then flip and repeat. So you basically get a sheet of duck tape paper. Then you can cut out any shape of the ducktape and glue them together to have some layered flowers. Put a jewel or a button or something in the middle and attach wherever you think it will fit. Makes it too cute!

ALTERNATIVE: I also thought that this could be an awesome idea for reclaimed purses. Purses that are still very functional, but not so much pretty. Saved from garage sales and thrift shops. Super easy and pretty cheap. The duck tape was $3.75 a roll about. and in this case the purse was free, so this whole project was less then $2, maybe even less then $1, I haven't figured out how much of the roll I used, but it was definitely less then half? If you got a purse for $5 this would still be a really cheap and cheerful project!

I hope that what I layed down made sense! Happy Crafting!