Duct-tape crafting has been the fascination of many for quite some time now.

If you scour the net you’ll see things such as duct-tape wallets, backpacks, roses and various other flowers, and even strips of duct-tape woven together to form a purse. Duct-tape really is one of those all-purpose products.While those things are all fun to make, it isn’t every day that you need a flower made from duct-tape. So, today, I want to give you some ideas for ways in which you can put your super cute and trendy patterned duct-tape to use on everyday, practical use items and teach you some tips on how to maximize the use of your Fiskars tools while doing so.

Duct-tape can be found in your local hardware stores, but you will find the best selection of colors and patterns-fun patterns like houndstooth, zebra prints, skulls, flames, tie-dye and polka dotsóat your local craft store.

The whole purpose of covering something with duct-tape is to make it into something it wasn’t before. I find this as the perfect opportunity to use some recyclable items. Empty cans, jars and other things that were meant to be discarded make for great desktop storage to contain the clutter. You see here that I’ve gathered some items that I think are perfectly suited for a duct-tape makeover. Things such as a boring black tape dispenser, an empty snack container, an empty glass jar, and a seasonal journal. After shopping for your duct-tape and gathering items you’d like to alter, you’ll want to keep the following tips in mind:

Tip #1: A detail knife with a fresh blade is your best friend. The detail knife is ideal for lifting up the corners of your duct-tape without stretching them out or curling them under. It’s nearly impossible to lift a corner without one. It is also perfect for trimming excess duct-tape when going around the contour of the object you’re altering.

Tip #2: Your second best friend is a pair of non-stick scissors. The duct-tape is quite sticky making it difficult to cut without non-stick scissors. The original orange handled scissors will work, but if it sticks to the blade you’ll get some distortion of shape as you pull the tape away.

Tip #3: A measuring device is essential.

I highly recommend using the built-in measuring tape you can find on the Tool Taxi or the Sew Taxi. The flexible tape makes it a breeze to measure contoured items quickly and efficiently.

Tip #4: Creating your own sheets of duct tape.While shopping for my duct-tape rolls, I noticed that the craft store had duct-tape sheets for sale to the tune of $1.99 for an 8x10 sheet. The sheets offered were a single pattern of some of the same designs that were on the rolls-how boring. By unrolling your rolls of duct-tape across a cutting mat, slightly overlapping tape strips as you go, you can create your own tape sheets in any color or size your heart desires. Rolling the strips out is made easy with the cutting mat because of the unique guideline/grid printed on the mat. You can follow the straight lines, the dots or the diagonals. Once you have your strips aligned, simply use your straightedge ruler and a detail knife (or rotary cutter) to cut the size sheet you need. This is the exact method I used to cut the sheet I covered the empty snack jar turned pencil caddy.

Tip #4: Create your own patterns. Solid duct-tape is a blank canvas and quite easy to alter with the proper tools. To alter the empty jar turned flower vase (because every desk needs a vase of flowers), I used white duct-tape and stamped my own random alphabet pattern on it using the extra long acrylic block along with the Alpha Basic Clear Stamps and ink suitable for every surface. Using the acrylic block along with the clear alphabet stamps made it easy to see that I had a straight placement when stamping onto the tape.

Tip #5: Assembly line cutting is a huge time-saver. When wanting to create uniform squares or rectangles you will save yourself a ton of time and headache by putting your tools to work for you. In this case, I wanted to create a large number of squares to cover a blank cardboard magazine holder. By simply lining the tape strips up with the horizontal gridlines on the cutting mat and using my straight-edge quilting ruler along with a rotary cutter, I was able to tape off strips and cut 100+ squares in a matter of minutes. Lifting them off was made easy with the tip of my soft grip detail knife.

Tip #6: Keep replacement detail knife blades handy. The detail knife was the common tool used for completing all of the desk accessory makeovers. A fresh blade makes every crafting project easier. Now, go out there and load yourself up with some of your favorite duct-tape colors and patterns and see what kind of crafting magic you can conjure up!