Kids Craft: Duct Tape Bags

The ten year old is very much into animal prints - something about the fur patterns of leopards and giraffes and zebras and tigers seem to fascinate her.

She was fiddling around with some old white sticky duct tape making small handbags, using fabric for the inner lining. It wasn't working out smoothly but she stuck with it and added some silver tissue paper fringes to make it pretty (rightmost picture in the collage above.)

And, being partial to crafting myself, I always keep an eye out for fun craft materials at bargain price. I chanced upon these fancy duct tapes with animal prints at the dollar store. And some sparkly silver craft tape as well.

The girl was thrilled beyond words when I gave them to her and soon she went about making a few more purse/handbags. They all have fabric lining - basically, the duct tape goes over the fabric to make the purse usable. Some even have pockets for smartphone and such.

If one is objective, one must admit these are not terribly practical for everyday use. But, I don't have to be objective. I like the effort she put into it and the joy she got out of making something like this. She claims she is more into designing anyway and that these are prototypes. Someday, someone will hopefully care enough about her designs to make viable products, but until then, I'll happily watch her do what catches her fancy.