As you read in my earlier post, I recently tried Martha Stewart’s autumn wreath from her Michael’s craft collection. The wreath’s leaves are held together with floral tape. This was the first time I worked with floral tape, and I came up with some tips and tricks that might help you the next time you craft with the sticky substance.

The one tip that came with Martha’s kit was to “stretch the tape.” What they should have said was, “CONTINUALLY stretch the tape, but not too tight.” Stretching floral tape helps it stick to the tape itself and the materials you’re working with. But if you pull the tape too tight, it will snap. So stretch the tape, but do it cautiously.

Keep a damp paper towel close. Floral tape is terribly sticky, and my hands were a gross mess by the time I finished the wreath.

Work with small pieces. If you take a piece too long, it will twist and bind up on you just like a bad piece of Scotch tape. I made the mistake of thinking I needed to be working with one continual piece.

Smooth the tape as you go. When you’re wrapping the tape, use your thumb to smooth the tape against itself. I found this helped a lot with keeping the tape in place.

Hopefully these tips helped. I thought floral tape was strictly for making floral centerpieces, but floral tape does have a variety of crafty purposes.

These are my tips. Does anyone else have any words of floral tape wisdom?