Book Review: Duct Tape Mania

Last week, I shared super cool rubber band art we made from Amanda Formaro's book called Rubber Band Mania. Today I'm sharing two projects we made from her book Duct Tape Mania. For the sake of disclosure, I will repeat that Amanda is my boss at Fun Family Crafts and she gave me these books. My opinions, as always, are 100% my own. 

When Amanda's books arrived, I dug around and discovered that (as I suspected) we only had boring silver duct tape. Trevor and I headed to the store to see what we could find for the many projects we'd be making. So many choices! We went back and forth, debating pros and cons of different colors and prints, comparing prices (prints are more expensive than solids, and licensed character prints are MUCH more expensive than generic prints). Trevor is now a very savvy comparison shopper (thanks to both the Mathematics Belt Loop and Pin and his Canada souvenir budget) and I was really impressed when he suggested we buy solid white because it is cheaper, then decorate it with Sharpies or other art materials to make our own patterns.

We came home with our white duct tape and got to work. The first step was finding out exactly what we could use to color our duct tape. I taped three strips of white duct tape to a piece of scrap chipboard while Trevor zoomed through the house gathering art materials. Here are the results of his test:

As you can see, an ordinary pencil, Twistables, colored pencils and crayons do not show up well on duct tape. Sharpies, Color Blanks (which are like Sharpies), Prismacolor Art Markers, rubber stamps (stamped with StazOn ink), and Stickles all work well.

Trevor thumbed through the book and decided he wanted to make an organizer. I selected a cool braided bracelet. But first, Trevor wanted to try the duct tape magic trick from the book. It was awesome and worked just as Amanda described. However, there was only one problem, which turned out to be a problem we had with every project in the book. Trevor is not strong enough to pull or rip duct tape without help. While he was able to do most of the projects from Rubber Band Mania independently, he needed my help pulling, ripping, and/or cutting duct tape every single time. Since I like crafting with Trevor, it wasn't a big deal. But I do want to note that younger children might not be able to use Duct Tape Mania independently the way they could with Rubber Band Mania.

Once I prepared strips of duct tape for him, Trevor was able to make his organizer. He covered a rectangular box, then made some dividers and handles. Finally, he decorated it with Sharpies and Stickles.

While he decorated, I made my braided bracelet. It was really easy and I love how it turned out! The most difficult part about it was photographing my own arm. 

Thanks again to Amanda for these excellent books! We love them and I'd highly recommend them for the young crafter in your life. You can buy Rubber Band Mania and Duct Tape Mania on Amazon (affiliate links below) or in stores like Walmart or Target. 

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