#StickOrTreat with Duck Tape®

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Duck Brand provided by ShurTech Brands, LLC for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Last year, TG and I were talking about making pumpkin purses using foam pumpkins and Duck Tape®. This year, inspired by Duck Tape®'s Stick or Treat contest, we did it.

 

Stick or Treat is an annual contest with great prizes sponsored by Duck Tape®. You take a pumpkin- foam or real- and use Duck Tape® to decorate it. The tape comes in so many colors and patterns including some great ones just for Halloween like Halloween colored chevrons, candy corn, monsters and spiders. The colors include black, blaze orange and just about any color you'd need for whatever you can imagine. 

The prizes this year are:

First Place: $1,000 and a Cricut Mini® Personal Electronic Cutter 

Second Place: $500 

Third Place: $300

 

Check out last year's winners and entries for lots of ideas.

Stick or Treat Contest

 

To make pumpkin purses you will need:

• Foam carving pumpkins- they are hollow inside
• Serrated knife for cutting the pumpkin
• Duck Tape®
• adhesive backed hook and loop tape
• a plastic grocery bag OR acrylic paint
• Non-stick scissors

Start by cutting off the top of the pumpkin just like you'd cut off the top of a jack-o-lantern. Make a circle big enough for your hand to fit in. Quick tip- use a thumb tack, piece of string and a pen to mark a circle before cutting, tie the string to the thumb tack and put it in the stem, then tie the other end to the pen about 2 inches away for a 4 inch circle. Mark the circle with the pen, then cut along that line.

 

Why a plastic bag or acrylic paint? The inside is raw foam, and tape doesn't stick well to it. It will stick once it's sealed with an acrylic paint and color doesn't matter. We lined ours with plastic bags like this-

Put the bag in the pumpkin.

 

Trim the bag edges around the outside of the pumpkin and tape down. Extra is fine, we will trim off a lot of it after the lining is taped.

 

Tape up the inside. I love this candy corn design because even when it's overlapped and going all different directions, it still looks great. 

The top- the foam doesn't matter as much here and you don't need to seal it or cover it with plastic. Just criss cross tape across the bottom of the top and wrap the tape around to the top. If you fringe your tape as shown, it will be much flatter and form fitting.

 

Now that's done, make straps. You'll need a 5 inch piece for the hinge to keep the top in place, a 5-8 inch piece (depending on how you want it to look) for the hook and loop tape clasp and a piece long enough for a strap. To make the straps, cut 2 pieces of tape the same length, put one down sticky side up and put the other piece sticky side down on top of it with a half inch overlap. Fold the edges over on both sides.

 

Trim the plastic around the pumpkin body. Some of the outside of the pumpkin may come up when you untape it- that's fine, you're covering the whole thing up with tape anyway.

 

Tape the hinge piece to the lid, and then cover the lid with the tape you want for the outside. Then fit it to the bottom part of the pumpkin and tape the other side of the hinge to the pumpkin.

 

Now start covering the pumpkin with tape. Use your fingers to burnish the tape down so it goes into the creases and lines. 

 

To finish, tape the hook and loop piece on the top of the pumpkin and apply the hook and loop tape to the clasp part, peel off the other side of the adhesive backing and press the tape clasp down to the outside of the pumpkin to put the pieces on it. Then tape your straps into place.

 

My pumpkin purse used black, Blaze orange and candy corn Duck Tape®, my daughter used the great purple spider tape with black tape and her pumpkin purse has a lot more decoration. 

 

A bigger pumpkin would make a nice trick or treat bag. 

 

Check out Stick or Treat Contest, and follow Duck Tape® on Facebook and Twitter for lots of ideas.