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Applications are now open for Detroit Urban Craft Fair 2010, December 4th and 5th at the Fillmore Detroit!
Working with floral tape
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?
7 Comments so far
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This post was written by Lish on October 25th, 2007. She filed it in the Projects category , and tagged it with floral tape. So far, 7 people have responded. If you enjoyed it and you'd like to read some related posts, try one of these:
- Product review: Martha Stewart Photo Frame Kit
- Review: mix tape zine
- Product review: Micheal’s Martha Stewart Autumn Wreath Kit
- Super Bowl Crafts
- Project: Valentine’s Day wreath adds “pizaaaaaaaz!”
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to this comment On January 29, 2008 at 8:15 am Handmade Detroit » Product review: Martha Stewart Photo Frame Kit said:
[...] Working with floral tape [...]
to this comment On June 2, 2009 at 1:43 pm Katie said:
Hello from Louisiana! I make “Bayou Blossoms” (floral-topped pens), and use floral tape to wrap the “stems.” No one wants to use sticky pens, so I started experimenting. I don’t have any tips to keep your hands clean while you’re working, but once your project is complete, sprinkle it with a fine coat of baby powder. It makes the lines of the floral tape visible at first, but rubbing the coated area with clean hands helps remove excess powder. Good luck!
to this comment On June 28, 2009 at 2:38 pm tess said:
i bought the ‘Martha stewart encyclopedia of crafts’ and in it you can make tissue flowers. it said in it to wrap the floral tape around the stem to hold everything together but the tape just doesn’t stick to the stem and keeps unraveling-i’m finding that I’ll have almost finished the creation and then it all unravels nd all of the petals fall out and i have to start again. this isn’t only annoying but also time consuming and expensive as buying 20 rolls of floral tape isn’t exactly cheap! Any suggestions?
to this comment On October 17, 2009 at 3:48 pm Maddy Nupp McDonald said:
Tess, Don’t forget to slightly tug at the tape as you’re using it. The floral tape has wax embedded in it, and if it’s not tugged, it doesn’t warm up and stick to itself. And if you’re having trouble getting used to the tape, practice wrapping it around a pencil before using it for your project. You’ll get a feel for it, and then love it.
You can also always glue pieces together with tacky glue to hold them under the tape.
Thanks Katie for the powder tip! I love it! I’ll try it :o)
Thanks Lish for the great post!
Have a great day! :o)
to this comment On November 4, 2009 at 3:04 pm Kandi said:
Thanks so much for this! I was having the very same problem Tess had. Will go back and try again tugging the tape as you recommend.
to this comment On June 22, 2010 at 7:05 am Dana said:
Oh! I just made the cutest flower fairy wands for my daughters 7th birthday. I used the concept of the flower pens that see everywhere, but used long wooden dowels, then put a large pink gerber daisy on top with pink, lavender, glittery white, and sheer green ribbons tied around the base of the flower. I kept a little bit of stem on ea bloom, then wrapped the entire dowel with floral ribbon to hold everything in place and make it pretty. This was my first time using floral tape for anything and was shocked at how sticky the exposed side is! I guess I always figured that only one side would be sticky… so wrong! Anyways, I have been racking my brain and asking around with no avail at all… so thanks so much for the baby powder idea Katie! I can’t wait to go home and see if this fixes my problem. No fairy wants a sticky wand =(
to this comment On July 15, 2010 at 6:47 pm Janine said:
Yay for the baby powder tip! The sticky residue has held me back from making so many creations that are in my head. I tried fabric-covered wire, but the ‘fabric’ starts to unravel wherever I cut the wire…and you just can’t have that when you’re making miniature branches! Thanks for all the great tips :o)