Out on the Town: Duct Tape Wallet

 

I had made a duct tape wallet at the beginning of the school year, thinking that it would be a great craft for the middle school kids I was working with after school.  The craft ended up being a hit, and they actually had to do it again later in the school year!  I began using the wallet I had made soon after that, and got a number of compliments on it, and was actually asked to make other people these duct tape wallets as well.

I've been using this same duct tape wallet since then, and it only recently started falling apart.  While it is fairly easy to repair these wallets just by adding a little more duct tape to them, I decided that it was time for a change, especially in the color department (my old one was bright turquoise and pink - not really my style!).  I was talking to Cornelius about this a little, right after we'd gotten done talking about how I thought this blog might end up being more of a crafts blog than anything, and he suggested that I explain how to make these to you guys, as well.  I thought it was a great idea, so here it is!  If you're interested in making a duct tape wallet of your own, read on!

Materials

• 1 roll of duct tape - I used a red Duck brand duct tape, but they come in all sorts of colors!
• a pair of scissors
• 1 piece of notebook paper

 

Instructions

• Cut the top margin off the piece of notebook paper, and on a clean, flat surface, begin covering the piece of paper with duct tape.

• Once the paper is completely covered on one side, trim the excess duct tape off the paper, and flip the work over.  
• Repeat the first two steps for this side, as well.
• Take a piece of duct tape just longer than the longest side of the wallet, and rip this down the center.  Now, rip it again, so you have a long strip 1/4 of the width of the duct tape itself.
• Fold this over the top and bottom sides of the wallet to finish those sides.  Cut off any excess.

 

• Fold the entire wallet in half lengthwise, and take another 1/4 width piece of duct tape to line the bottom of the wallet.
• Before we seal the sides of the wallet, we will want to make pockets.  To do this, take a long piece of duct tape, and fold this in half.  

 

• Then, fold the wallet in half width-wise to determine how big the pockets should be.  Cut strips from the duct tape you folded in half to make the pockets (6 is usually a good number of pockets)
• Taking 1/4 width pieces of duct tape, line the tops of the pockets as we did for the wallet sides.
• Now, we will attach the pockets to the wallet.  Taking 1/4 width pieces of duct tape, again, tape the pockets down by placing a piece of tape along the bottom edge.

 

• Once the pockets are in place, we can begin sealing it up.  Take 2 pieces of 1/4 width duct tape, and seal up the sides, thereby sealing the pockets, as well.  Cut off any excess.

 

• Finally, take a 1/2 width strip of duct tape, and put it right down the center to completely seal the pockets.  That's it!  You've made a duct tape wallet!

Tip:  To get the wallet to hold its shape, stick it under something heavy for a little while.  This will set the inner crease more, and help it stay shut!