Duct Tape Flowers

Recently, I read a book called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Not exactly an unhappy person, Gretchen realized that the "days were long but the years were short."  She wanted to learn how to appreciate the every day more. So, she set goals for each month and pursued them in the hopes it would make her a happier person. She based her goals on her "happiness research" - basically studies and philosophical musings on happiness.

One of her goals was to "Be Gretchen." What this means is to allow herself to indulge in things she ultimately enjoys, but denies herself because they don't fit into her expectations. For example, I would love to say that I find the literary classics interesting and that my musical tastes are very diverse, but in reality the last books I couldn't put down were juvenile fiction's The Hunger Games and Lady Gaga is all over my iPod.  I am happiest just "being JoAnn."

But what if you don't know what "being you" is? Easy.  Just try to remember what you liked to do as a kid before you started imposing unrealistic expectations on yourself.  I loved crafts.  In my eighth grade home arts class, we learned how to design pictures on t-shirts using sequins. After I learned how to do it, I had my parents take me to Michaels to buy every color sequin imaginable. I used to sit for hours, transferring sequins by toothpick to clean, white shirts with carefully ironed on outlines.

Thus, I am trying to find crafts projects that fit my adult life. I have always been fascinated with duct tape flowers - partly because they look cool and also because I once threatened boys in my class (who got in trouble a lot) that I was going to have them start writing their Think Time slips with the prettiest princess pen I could find. Oddly, the threat alone was effective for those boys.

I found colored duct tape at Michaels, searched You Tube for instructions and become thoroughly absorbed in craftiness for an hour.   I love the end result and Cam likes them too.  She is already making plans for me to sit down and create more flowers for her.

If you are interested in making duct tape flowers, below is the tutorial I used:

How to Make Duct Tape Flowers