duct tape roses

[lonelystars.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm Julie and I've been lurking for a couple weeks. I love seeing all the creativity and now I have some questions for you lovelies.

Next in my college speech class we have to give "How-to" or Demonstration Speeches. I still have a week to decide on my topic but I was thinking about doing these duct tape roses- thinking it'd be interesting for a broader audience.

So my question is two-fold: 1) have any ideas for topics I could "How-to" for this speech?

and 2) any advice for my poor, pathetic looking duct tape roses?

So first of all, my materials were white duct tape I found in my garage, scissors, and bamboo skewers.


the first one I made. Made by cutting about 2 inches off the roll and folding one side down to make a triangle, leaving sticky parts on two sides and then folding the other side down so it formed a (2 thickness) triangle with sticky on the bottom. hard to explain but I did it like the instructions I found here.

and I don't know it just looks wierd.

so then I tried a couple different things that just ended up looking like folds of duct tape, not what I was aiming for really. and asked my mom for help, she's pretty crafty sometimes.


this time I made the petals more loose and did the middle different. I like this one the most, so far. I think. edit: I forgot to add that for some of the bottom petals I used two strips of tape and then folded so the triangles were larger.


added some leaves.


this one is a tiny one, made on a (never used) mascara wand. (yeah, that's the tip of the stick sticking up though the middle) for those I cut the duct tape in half and used my second method (looser petals).


finally this is the simplest one, I did it like I could in class- only 7 pieces of tape and it looks like a flower.

So if I do go with this idea I will practice making them more and get more supplies and then possibly make a bouquet and put some as accessories (on a pen and like on a barette I can wear during the speech), I know I've only made them a couple times but...

Do any of you have any adivce for me? different methods? or anything, I just think they could be approved upon- I'm just not exactly sure how.

they sort of don't look like roses, like maybe more amaryllis flowers or water lilies but *shrug* duct tape flowers it is then. and any other patterns for duct tape flowers?

so what do you think?