Pro® Costume Tape: For Skin and Fabric

Pro® Costume Tape (also known as Pro 1502 or Pro Body Tape) is a skin-friendly, double-sided tape that’s also great for fabric. It comes in a portable roll, with a paper liner that’s easy to tear by hand.

You can wear Pro Costume Tape on your skin for hours without irritation. It removes gently, without tearing skin, pulling facial or body hairs, or disturbing makeup.

Makeup artists can really benefit from Pro Costume tape, too. It allows you to easily add embellishments (like gems, flowers, etc.) to your makeup design. With this tape, you can reposition or reuse any embellishments as needed. Just watch this demo by face painting artist Brook (owner of Kiwis Party):

Pro Costume Tape also has a strong hold on medium to lightweight fabric for fabric-to-fabric attachments, making it easy to “sew” your own costume with NO sewing skills. The tape removes gently, without distorting fabric color or damaging fabric threads or texture. It’s cleaner than using hot glue guns, and any changes you make are reversible.

We also recommend Pro Costume Tape for wearing face masks without strings or ear loops! It’s perfect for fabric-to-skin applications.

Pro Costume Tape is also great for:

• attaching wigs, hair pieces, toupees, faux mustaches and beards
• special makeup FX and embellishments like gems, florals, and prosthetics
• attaching masks and eye pieces easily to skin, without strings
• altering costumes, including dance and gymnastics costumes, cosplay, and more

UGlu®: Your Secret Weapon for Amazing Costumes

Let’s not forget about UGlu®! Although UGlu is great for creating amazing balloon and party décor, it’s also a powerful tool for creating and customizing costumes, accessories, props for cosplay and stage sets, and more!

UGlu is a removable adhesive glue in a convenient tape-like format. It’s non-toxic, acid-free, weather-proof, and waterproof. UGlu comes in a variety of shapes, like squares (“dashes”), rectangular strips, and rolls.

UGlu attaches easily to a wide variety of surfaces, including rough or uneven surfaces. Like Pro Costume Tape, it removes easily and cleanly – so you can easily assemble, disassemble, and re-use any parts you’ve “uglu’d” together!

It’s great for DIY costumes for kids and adults (especially last-minute ideas), but it works just as well for professional-grade costume and prop work for cosplay, historical re-enactment, renaissance faires, film, theater and more. UGlu is a costume tape that is safe enough for kids to use, but powerful enough for professionals!

See these two costume tapes in action:

You may also be interested in…

Pro Gaff® in Fluorescent Colors

Our popular Pro Gaff® tape comes in five fluorescent colors that are UV-light reactive (that means they GLOW under UV!)

Pro Gaff is highly conformable to irregular surfaces, removes cleanly, tears easily by hand (no need for scissors), and is write-able with markers and pens.

Use it for decorations, assemble or add details to costumes, and to make your own props.

Pro Glow Gaff®

Pro Glow Gaff® has all the same properties as Pro Gaff, but it also glows in the dark without UV lights! You can create unique glowing looks for scenes, props, and costumes. Pro Glow Gaff is also great for safety marking stairs, exits, and more.

The post Costume Tapes: For Skin, Fabric, Props, Makeup SFX & More! appeared first on Pro Tapes®.

Solving Mazes is Fun and Stimulates Your Brain!

Mazes are a stimulating way of incorporating play with learning. Solving mazes can boost concentration, cognitive thought process, resilience and patience. Mazes can set a foundation in identifying a multifaceted approach to solving issues.

Mazes can improve many skills for young students: improving fine motor control, boosting problem solving skills, improving hand-eye coordination, memory, and patience. For the same reasons, it’s great for adults of all ages to try a maze game!

Get Creative and Design Your Own Pro® Pocket Spike Tape Maze!

Pro® Pocket Spike Tape comes in bright, dark and fluorescent stacks. These mazes can be done at home or in schools, so they’re an excellent tool for parents and teachers. Choose your favorite colors and lose all your inhibitions! 

Below is an example of a tape maze one my colleagues created – check out the video above and the photos below! She used some graph paper to plan out her maze first. If possible, I recommend taping out your maze on a plastic sheet (or even a white erase board), so you can “draw” your way through your maze with a marker!

Have fun with it – and let us know how your tape maze comes out!

The post Table Maze Game with Pro® Pocket Spike Tape appeared first on Pro Tapes®.

Today we’re showing you how to make a simple DIY jewelry box Valentine’s Day craft, using some of our wonderful tapes, including: Pro® Felt, Pro® Sheen, and Pro® 965. This Valentine’s Day craft is easy for all ages, although we’d recommend supervising and assisting any children on cutting steps.

When you’re done with this nice DIY jewelry box, you could even put a nice shiny present you actually bought inside it, but you don’t have to… Who are we kidding!? You definitely should!!

Plus, once you understand how to make this craft, you can just as easily make a box for a watch, or a necklace, or any other precious gift, all using Pro® Felt for the inside lining, and all kind of others tapes to decorate the outside.

If you get inspired to make your own gift box, be sure to show off to us for free giveaways!

Supplies:

• Pro® Felt Tape
• Pro® 965 Hi-Tack Tape
• Pro® Sheen in Red
• Paper-based Box (I used a 3” x 3” and 2” deep box)
• Pink Floral Cardstock
• Cardboard sheets (preferably thinner ones)
• Craft Paint in Dusty Rose and White
• Foam Paintbrush
• Pencil
• Cutting Board
• X-Acto Knife
• Ruler
• Black sharpie

Step 1: Line the Inside of Your Box with Pro® Sheen in Red

I visited my local craft store and found myself a nice, simple paper box: 3” x 3”, and 2” deep, with a lid you lift up to open. A box like this makes a great base for adding all kinds of decorations!

To start off, I lined the entire inside of the lid and the box with Pro® Sheen in Red.

The neat thing about Pro® Sheen is that it layers really well. So don’t get anxious about the “perfect” way to cut and lay the Pro® Sheen down. I just focused on cutting short strips and filling in my blank spaces one strip at a time, smoothing them out as I go.

Step 2: Paint the Outside of Your Box with Pink Craft Paint

There’s no need to buy expensive professional-grade acrylic paints for this step! Regular craft paints will do just fine. I grabbed a “Dusty Rose” pink paint and mixed a little White into it, so that it would match the cardstock I’ll use on the lid later.

Then I took my inexpensive foam brush, and painted the sides, tops, and edges (carefully!) One coat of paint seemed to be enough for me, but you can let it dry and apply a second coat.

Make sure to let your paint dry completely before going onto the next step! Depending on weather conditions in your room, it could take more or less time. My guess is 30 minutes in a hot room, at least 1 hour in colder rooms.

Step 3: Attach your Floral Cardstock to your Lid with Pro® 965

Personally, I’m quickly becoming a fan of Pro® 965 Hi-Tack tape for any time I need to attach something quickly, easily, but also permanently.

First, measure out the top of our lid. I already knew my lid should be 3” x 3”, but I measured again just to make sure. Then I traced out the right size and shape on the back of my Pink Floral cardstock, then cut it out.

I cut out strips of Pro® 965 and stuck it in the corners of my lid, and peeled off the liner. Then I carefully and slowly placed my cut-out Pink Floral cardstock on top, making sure it aligned neatly.

Step 4: Make the Inside of your Jewelry Box with Pro® Felt

Now that the outside of our box is completed, we need to prepare the really impressive part – the felt-covered inside for display our jewelry!

For this step, we need cardboard (preferably the thinner kind), Pro® 965, and Pro® Felt Tape.

First, I measured out strips on my cardboard that would be the same width was the box for the length (3”), and 1” wide. I cut out several strips, including some extra in case I needed more. To make them round (for the felt “bumps”), I rolled the cardboard strips on my table and pinched them to make them keep their rounder shape.

Next I measured out 3” long strips of Pro® Felt. I was able to mark off the 3” mark with a black Sharpie, and cut out as many strips as I needed.

I applied the Pro® Felt strips along the cardboard strips, then I trimmed any excess tape or cardboard off.

Now, we need to attach our Pro® Felt-covered-cardboard-strips onto a cardboard base which we will place inside our box. Again, I knew my box was 3” x 3”, so I cut out that size square from my cardboard.

However, cutting the exact size of your box means this cardboard base probably wont fit perfectly *inside* the box. That’s why I grabbed my X-Acto knife and self-healing cutting board, and trimmed the edges down a little bit at a time, periodically testing it out by trying to fit the cardboard base into my box.

Once my base fit, I covered it with Pro® 965 on one side and peeled the liner. Now the base is ready to attach our Pro® Felt-covered strips!

I started up at the top and attached my first Pro® Felt strip. You want to keep the felt strip pinched into a rounded position as you place it onto the base, then press firmly down so it sticks to the Pro® 965. Watching the video above for this step will really help illustrate how to do this!

I continued adding one strip at a time, lining them up “flush” or perfectly side-by-side, one bump after another.

Once it’s finished, you should have something that reminds you of jewelry boxes you’ve previously seen!

Before we can put this in our box, you may need to trim some excess cardboard or felt off to make sure it fits into the box perfectly. Time to use our X-Acto knife and cutting board again! Really take your time doing this, and be careful with that knife! If you’re doing this craft with children, you should definitely do this step for them if they’re under 12 years old.

Once your felt base is all trimmed up, go ahead and slide it down into the box! And believe it or not… that’s the final step! This Valentine’s Day craft is THAT simple!

Finished Product: Just Add in Some Jewelry!

Now you can go ahead and test out your new DIY jewelry box. You can put in rings, earrings, necklaces – anything you can stick between the felt bumps to hold them securely.

Now you can stop it off by tying on a ribbon, or add your own decorations with other tape! Get creative, and be sure to show off to us through our website or on our social media pages (just look for us @protapes)!

Did you try this craft out, or maybe you got inspired to make your own layered paper art using our tape? Share your photos with us here and you can receive free giveaway prizes!

The post DIY Jewelry Box with Pro® Felt Tape appeared first on Pro Tapes®.

First, an introduction: Pro® 3016 is a double-coated foam tape, which means it’s made of foam and it’s sticky on both sides. You cut it, place it down, then peel off the paper backing (called a liner) off the back, then you can stick things to the other side. This tape can come with temporary or permanent adhesives coated on it, depending on what kind of holding power you need.

Then, we have Pro® 965. It’s also a double-coated tape that’s thicker than most common tapes you may have used. The tape looks like it would be red, but that’s actually just the color of the liner! The tape itself is clear. It’s got a pretty aggressive adhesive, which means it holds things really well. It’s commonly used for mounting all kinds of trims, mouldings, plastic parts, signs, etc.

Together, these tapes inspired me to create some layered paper art. If you look up “layered paper art” online, you’ll find all kinds of awesome examples!

What is layered paper art?

The main idea is that you use multiple layers of cut-out paper, stacking each layer with something that creates space (like foam tape) to create a unique, three dimensional artwork. Pro® 3016 is perfect for layered paper art because it creates that little bit of space you need between the layers AND it holds the papers together.

Create Your Winter Wonderland Layered Paper Art

Now let’s get started. You can watch the video to see how it’s done, but be sure to come back and read the blog below to get all of the step-by-step details.

Supplies:

• Chalkboard Easel (any size you like – mine was close to 5” x 6”)
• 3/4” or 1” wide Pro® 3016 foam tape (or other Pro® brand foam tape)
• Pro® 965 Hi-Tack Tape
• Pro® Sheen in Gold
• Optional: Pro® Pocket Spike Stack roll in Dark Blue, for edge trimming
• Cutting board
• X-acto knife
• Sharpies in Silver, Gold, and Black
• Card stock sheets in Dark Blue Sheen, White Glitter, Pale Blue Glitter, and White
• Ruler
• Pencil & Eraser
• Scissors

Step 1: Create the Base Layer on your Easel

For this craft, I used a little chalkboard easel I had left over from holiday decorating. To make sure my tapes and papers adhered well to the surface, I wiped it down with a wet paper towel first, and let it dry fully.

If you don’t have a chalkboard easel available, you can still make this craft on any other hard, flat surface (like a canvas board), then place it on a small photo easel to display it.

To create a sturdy base layer for my artwork, I measured out my easel dimensions, then grabbed some plain White cardstock and cut it to the same size.

To attach my cardstock base to my easel, I used Pro® 965. I cut it into strips and placed it around the edges of the easel. Then I peeled off the red liner, and very (very!) carefully placed my cardstock base on top. Remember, Pro® 965 has a strong adhesive, so you want to take your time and be neat when sticking things to it.

Now that I had the first paper support layer down, I grabbed the Dark Blue cardstock that would become the background color for my winter wonderland scene. I love how this beautiful blue cardstock shimmers subtly in the light – plus, it reminds me of the 2020 Color of the Year!

I used the easel to trace the exact shape I needed on the back of the Dark Blue cardstock, then I cut it out and affixed it to the easel with a strip of Pro® 965 in each corner.

Here’s what it looks like with both layers firmly attached:

OPTIONAL Step: Trim the edges with Pro® Pocket Spike in Dark Blue

I didn’t originally plan to do this, but while working on this craft, I noticed that my little roll of blue tape from the Pro® Pocket Spike Stack (Dark) really matched the color of my Dark Blue cardstock layer.

So I went ahead and created a trim around the top, left and right edges using it!

You definitely don’t need to do this to make the final product look nice, but feel free to let it inspire you to experiment with trimming other artworks with a nice layer of tape.

Step 2: Create your Moon with Pro® Sheen

As part of the background layer, I wanted to add a nice shiny moon. What could be better than using some Pro® Sheen in Gold? You could also do it in Silver Pro® Sheen, but I preferred having the warm tone of the gold to contrast with the cool night sky.

Draw a circle to cut out on a sheet of White cardstock. You can draw it by hand, or you can be like me and grab a random roll of Pro® Pocket Spike Stack and trace your circle around that. When you have this much tape on your desk, you end up using it for all kinds of things, not just sticking stuff down! Then I used my X-Acto knife to neatly cut the circle out.

I covered this cardstock circle with the Gold Pro® Sheen, and trimmed the excess off of the edges with my scissors.

And I used a small piece of Pro® 965 to place the moon in my sky.

Step 3: Draw, Cut Out and Attach your First Tree (with Pro® 965)

In this winter wonderland scene, we’re going to have three (3) trees, made from the White cardstock. One tree will look like it’s the furthest in the back of the scene, one will be in the “middle,” and one will stick out a bit and look like the “closest” one to us.

I began by sketching out my first tree (which will go in the “back” of the scene) with pencil on top of my White cardstock. I erased any extra lines or branches I didn’t like. Then I cut it out with the X-Acto knife.

Since this tree is going in the back of our scene, it doesn’t need to stick out. That’s why I used Pro® 965, to stick it down nice and flat, instead of the Pro® 3016 foam tape – but we’ll be using that soon!

Step 4: Attach the Back Layer of Snow (with Pro® 3016)

Before we make any more trees, we need to make the back layer of snow – and use our Pro® 3016 for the first time.

I used the Pale Blue Glitter cardstock for this layer of snow. Having it be slightly darker than the front layer of snow (which we’ll use the White Glitter cardstock to make) will actually make it look like it’s further back in our scene, in a little bit of shadow.

To get the size of the snow right, I used my easel to trace out the width and get an idea of the height of my snow. Check out the full video above to see exactly what I mean. Then I cut it out with the X-Acto.

This is the first layer that needs to be 3D, so to attach it, I use the Pro® 3016 foam tape. I put cut squares of it in each “corner” of my snow.

But just one layer doesn’t make it stick out enough for me. So I peeled the liners on those squares off, then cut 4 more squares to attach on top. The Pro® 3016 tape sticks to itself really securely.

Finally, I stuck down my first 3D snow layer to the canvas!

Step 5: Make and Attach the Second and Third Trees (with Pro® 3016)

Now I could make the second tree, which will go on top of our back layer of snow. Like before, I sketched it out on the White cardstock, cut it out with the X-Acto knife, but this time I cut thin strips of the Pro® 3016 foam tape to attach the tree to the canvas.

I used a single layer of Pro® 3016 where the tree touched the snow, and two or three layers of Pro® 3016 stacked together for the sky. I even put some tape in the branches to prop them up better.

The third tree goes on the far left, also on top of the back layer of snow. I followed the same steps as before. I made sure to place this tree somewhere lower on the back layer of snow, because I want the top layer of snow (which we’re making next) to cover the bottom of this third tree.

Step 6: Attach the Top Layer of Snow

For our final three dimensional paper layer, we’re adding one last layer of snow. For this layer, I’ll use the White Glitter cardstock.

Like I did when sketching out my back layer of snow, I used the easel to trace some guide lines for the width and to guess at the height I want.

To really make this layer pop out, I made three stacked layers with the Pro® 3016 foam tape.

Take a moment to admire how awesome this 3D layered paper art already looks – but get ready to add some final details!

Step 7: Add Some Final Details with Sharpie

To add that final “oomph!” factor to our layered paper artwork, grab some Sharpies in Black, Gold and Silver.

First, we need to turn our plain white trees into Birch trees. For this, you just need to carefully add in some horizontal lines with the Black sharpie. Vary the length of the lines, which side of tree they’re on, and how much space you leave between the lines.

Finally, we can beautify the sky with some stars, using Gold and Silver metallic Sharpies. The Sharpie ink shows up beautifully on my cardstock, and it really shines.

I made two kinds of stars. One is a dot in the middle, with 4 short “rays” radiating out from the dot. The others are just plain dots, in different sizes. I switched between using the Silver and Gold wherever I felt like it.

The Final Result: Winter Wonderland Layered Paper Art

The final product is complete! Doesn’t the sparkle and shine look amazing?

Did you try this craft out, or maybe you got inspired to make your own layered paper art using our tape? Share your photos with us here and you can receive free giveaway prizes!

The post Winter Wonderland Layered Paper Art with Pro® 3016 Foam and Pro® 965 appeared first on Pro Tapes®.

By killing two birds with one stone and making this trendy framed artwork with your own customized text, using Pro® JLAR II (Clear to the Core tape) and a couple of UGlu® Dashes!

If you’ve been browsing your local department store, you’ve probably seen really similar art pieces in the home décor section. Now, with this really simple, amazing Pro® JLAR tape hack, you can create your own beautiful message (or artwork!)

Plus, once you’ve tried this craft, I bet you can figure out all kinds of way to use Pro® JLAR… making labels, collages, etc. If you make anything amazing and take great photos, remember to send your photos to us here for free giveaways!

Now let’s get started. You can watch the video to see how it’s done, but be sure to come back and read the blog below to get all of the step-by-step details.

Supplies:

• 2” wide Pro® JLAR II
• UGlu® Dashes
• Two (2) flat-faced frames of the same style/color, 5″ x 7″
• a bowl for water
• a towel for letting your tape dry (microfiber is best)
• scissors
• printer with black ink
• Word or Image editing software of your choice (we used canva.com)

Step 1: Design Your New Year’s Resolutions Text and Print It

First, you need to write out your resolutions. There’s a lot of ways you can go about doing this: using Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, or any other software that lets you write and edit text and print it.

I decided to use canva.com to help me out! With Canva, I can get inspired by so many great font choices and lots of pre-designed templates. Then, I can set my own image size (5” x 7” in this case) so I know I’m working in the right dimensions for my frames.

The trick is to think about how the text might get divided up when you put it on Pro® JLAR. This will be easier to understand after you’ve finished watching the video (and maybe done a few test runs with Pro® JLAR to practice!) In my design above, you can see I divided up my resolutions into three big “chunks.”

I saved my design as a high quality JPEG and printed it out. Believe it or not, all you need to make this tape hack work is a regular printer and regular black ink – nothing fancy. But to print it at the right size, I still had to play around with my printer settings to get it to be the right size.

I printed at 35% of the original image size, and I used the cardboard backing from one of my frames as a comparison, to see whether I should print a little bigger or smaller. You’ll have to experiment and see what you like best!

Step 2: Prep Your Frames, Tape, and Other Supplies

Gather all of your supplies in one spot so you’ve got everything within reach. Have your towels ready, and fill the bowl up with warm water. Keep your towel next to your bowl.

To prepare your frames, remove the cardboard backing and the glass (and keep them around for future crafting activities!)

Step 3: Cover your Printed Text with Pro® JLAR

I’m using 2” wide Pro® JLAR, and I made sure to size each of my text areas or “chunks” to fit inside one strip of Pro® JLAR.

So now you can take your tape and apply it across your text, from one end of the paper to the other. Once your text is fully covered by the tape, grab your scissors and cut each strip of text out.

Step 4: Trim the Excess off Your Pro® JLAR Strips

Before you go on to the next step, you want to trim the excess off your strips. You’ll be sticking these strips to your frames later, and you don’t want them to be wider than your 7” frame.

To make it easy, instead of measuring, I just placed my strips on top of one of my frames, eyeballed where I wanted to center my text, marked off how much excess paper I needed to cut off, then cut.

Step 5: Soak your Pro® JLAR Text Strips in the Water

Now you can place your JLAR strips in your water bowl, ONE strip at a time. It doesn’t matter too much if the water is warm or room temperature, but it’ll feel nicer for your hands later if the water is warm.

Let your Pro® JLAR text strip soak for 1 – 2 minutes. You’ll know it’s ready for the next step when the paper on the back feels loose to the touch, like you could rub it off easily… because that’s what we’ll be doing!

Once the text strip has fully soaked, begin using your thumbs to rub the paper backing off in little circles. You’ll see that the paper rubs off, but the black printer ink does not.

Your goal is to fully rub off ALL of the paper, so all you have left is the Pro® JLAR tape and the black ink on it.

Don’t be afraid to rub as hard as you can – the ink really won’t come off! You want to get every last bit of paper off, especially on the letters. Even when you think you’ve rubbed all of the paper off, scrub it just a bit more to be really sure.

Once your Pro® JLAR tape strip is all clear, place it NON-STICKY side down onto a towel. Right now, your tape might not feel very sticky, but as it dries, it will become just as sticky as it used to be!

That’s why you want to be careful to but it NON-STICKY side down, and be aware of anything that might touch or get stuck to the tape.

A microfiber towel is the best thing to lay your tape down on, as it doesn’t have any stray fluff that could get stuck to your tape. Let your tape strip dry for 8 – 10 minutes (more or less, depending on the temperature of your room.)

Repeat this process with each of your Pro® JLAR strips. I recommend changing the water between strips, so the water isn’t too cloudy with paper pulp. If you have too much paper pulp floating around, it could stick to the tape and be hard to remove later.

After the strips are dry, if you see some paper residue still left, you can go ahead and soak them again to remove any extra left.

Fun fact: You don’t have to wait until absolutely all of the water is dried off of your tape strips before you stick them down. If you’ve got a couple of beads of water left on the surface, the Pro® JLAR tape should still stick where ever you need it to be without any problem.

Even while recording the demo video above, I can guarantee that I didn’t wait for every bead of water to evaporate.

Step 6: Stick Your Pro® JLAR Tape Strips to your First Frame

Your tape strips should be ready to stick down now. Here’s where your artwork is really going to come together!

Take one of your frames, and begin sticking each of your strips down across it. You want to make sure you’re sticking them to the FLAT front of the frame, because we will be sticking our second frame on top, and a flat surface will work the best for making sure everything sticks together (ba-dum-tish!)

Once you’re done, if there are any gaps going across the frame above, below or between your text that aren’t covered with Pro® JLAR, go ahead and fill in the gaps with more Pro® JLAR. Trim any excess so nothing sticks out past the edges of the frame.

Step 7: Attaching Your Second Frame on Top with UGlu® Dashes

Now, place a UGlu® Dash in each corner of the frame. Stick them down first, then peel off the paper backing.

Grab your second frame and carefully line up how you’re going to place it on top of the first frame. Press it down, then gently squeeze at each corner where the UGlu® Dashes are to secure the bond.

If you do mess up your alignment of the two frames, you can remove the top frame by twisting it off of the second one. Do not pull directly up! UGlu® is designed to resist your typical upward pulling motion (very strongly!) so slide or twist your frame off instead.

Step 8: Seal off the Back of Your Artwork

To make sure nothing gets stuck to the back of your nice New Year’s Resolutions, seal off the back of your artwork with a couple more strips of Pro® JLAR.

Flip your artwork to the back and tape down more strips across the back, making sure you place the tape sticky side IN to the artwork (and non-sticky side facing out.)

Final Step: Display your New Year’s Resolutions Frame Art with Pride!

Now you can display your resolutions proudly on your desk, book shelf, kitchen counter, side table – where ever you like!

You’ll be reminded of your goals for the year, AND you’ll have a nice new piece of custom décor that’ll have everyone wondering where you bought it from. Just tell them it’s all your own work – with a little help from Pro® JLAR!

Did you try this craft out, or maybe you got inspired to use Pro® JLAR in another way? Share your photos with us here and you can receive free giveaway prizes!

The post New Year’s Resolution Frame Art with Pro® JLAR II appeared first on Pro Tapes®.

I have a large and extended family and there’s always a celebration going on, whether it’s a birthday party, baby shower, gender reveal, retirement or graduation.  It so happens that I’m the de facto family party planner and decorator – probably because they know I’m the tape guy, who always has a tape solution! In preparation for such special occasions, I make sure to stock up on UGlu^®.

And I’m not the only one! Throughout this post, you’ll be seeing the beautiful work of one of my colleagues, who used UGlu^® to create a balloon demi-arch for the birthday of another colleague. You can watch her put the final product together in the video below.

So What is UGlu^®?

UGlu^® is a special, double-sided adhesive tape. It’s different than any tape you’ve met before. It comes in different sized patches (and dashes), which let you peel and stick it on to almost any surface. It has a powerful hold on whatever you’re sticking, but it’s also removable, so you don’t have to worry about damaging your walls or most surfaces.

Check out our video here to see how easy it is to put UGlu^® down and peel it back up.

Helium Shortage Letting the Air out of Balloon Decorating? Nope!

Although helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, recent supply chain interruptions have caused shortages in the market.  Due to the shortages, the helium that’s left in the market is given priority towards more critical applications such as semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace and healthcare (helium helps cool the coils of wires that conduct electricity in the magnets of MRI machines), making helium much more expensive for non-essential applications such as balloon decorating.

Lucky for us, UGlu^® adheres well to latex and foil balloons! With UGlu^®, you can make regular latex balloons look like they’re floating -the way helium balloons would- by sticking them to walls and ceilings. Plus, you can hang up other decorations alongside them using the same UGlu^® patches – flowers, lights, posters, photos, and more- to create some really lovely décor.

You can use UGlu^® to create:

• balloon garlands
• balloon arches (or demi-arches like this one by @moonandblooms)
• “necklace” style arches or organic style arches (visit this website to learn the difference)
• balloon hoops (like this one by @elegantballoons)
• balloon sculptures (like this CRAZY Wreck-it Ralph sculpture by @rejoiceeventdesign in our home state of New Jersey!)
• and so much more!

How to Make Your Own Balloon Arch with UGlu^®

You can start off by hooking balloons onto a fishing line the way many tutorials will show you – like this one by ProFlowers on “How on Make a Balloon Arch in 9 Easy Steps.” The steps I take are the same through Step 6.

You take a fishing line and thread it through a needle, then “sew” the fishing line through the tied-off ends of each latex balloon, until you’ve got a nice long line of balloons hanging off of your fishing line. Keep going until you reach the desired length for your arch (or hoop, garland, etc.) Then you tie your fishing line off. It’s a good way to start any arch or sculpture, since you’ll have a balloon “base” to add more balloons on top of.

The Difference with UGlu^®

At this point, most tutorials will instruct you to use hooks to hang your garland or balloon arch up, and to start adding more balloons and decorations with a hot glue gun. Call me crazy, but using a hot glue gun on balloons does not seem safe! Glue guns are dangerous, even low temperature ones. As anyone who’s used a hot glue gun before can tell you, there’s a big chance of burning yourself, dripping hot glue all over the place, and in this case bursting the balloons you’re working on.

With UGlu^®, there’s no risk of personal injury or damage to your surroundings. UGlu^® sticks immediately so there’s no drying time. You just peel the paper liner off, stick it on where you need it, and stick stuff on top. Easy, and safe. UGlu^® is also NON-TOXIC, so it’s safe to use for kid’s birthdays and parties. And it’ll remove cleanly from almost any surface without leaving any adhesive residue behind.

The Trick to Removing UGlu^®

Now’s a good time to mention this: Just how do you remove UGlu^® without leaving residues behind? There’s two methods.

One way is to pick at the corner of your UGlu^®, until you can lift it up and start peeling it back neatly. This video offers the perfect demonstration of this first method.

The second method is to twist whatever is attached to your UGlu^®. UGlu^® is designed to strongly resist upward pulling motions. If you try to pull something straight UP that’s attached with UGlu®, you’ll quickly find out just how strong UGlu^® really is! Instead, you need to twist anything that’s attached sideways, as if you’re going to spin it. UGlu^® will quickly give up its grip this way. This is how you should remove anything that’s stuck to your walls, ceilings, floors, etc. that can’t be removed with the first method.

For balloons, if you’re going to be taking apart your balloon arch by popping it, then you don’t need to worry about removing the UGlu^® between balloons. Just pop away, and throw them out!

Let’s Keep Decorating That Balloon Arch!

So after my fishing line is tied off, I secure my balloon base where ever it needs to go with UGlu^®. You can stick it down to stairs, a table, the wall, the ceiling- anything! Just check out how we started sticking balloon bunches to a wall in this demonstration video:

Here’s a few photos from that process as well:

Once my base is secured in place, I then use UGlu^® to add smaller balloons to my base. UGlu^® helps me add different sizes and colors of balloons to create a beautiful, multi-colored organic arch effect. You can also use UGlu^® to adhere flowers and foliage to your balloon arches and garlands. There’s really no limit to what you can add in! UGlu^® helps me spice up my decoration with my own personal artistic touch.

UGlu^® is versatile – so get creative!

There’s so many additional ways to use UGlu^® to make your party decorating easier, faster and safer. I use UGlu^® on the bottom of table centerpieces to help prevent them from being knocked over. I use UGlu^® to stick LED lights, posters and signs to walls, doors and railings for lovely décor.

Whether you’re a professional party planner or an amateur decorator, you’re making the world a better place through your colorful and joyful designs. Let UGlu^® make your work easier!

And be sure to show us how you use UGlu^® for your next party planning event by visiting this page here – you can upload your photos for the chance to win assorted prizes!

The post How Balloons and UGlu® Go Together for the Perfect Party Planning appeared first on Pro Tapes®.

It’s fun and easy for adults, and it’s safe for kids to craft, too. Plus, with a little extra magic, you can make it light up!

Watch our video for a quick speed-through of how we crafted the spellbook. Then, read below for our step-by-step guide!

Materials Used:

• Pro^® 46 (Crepe Paper Tape)
• Pro^® Sheen
• Pro^® 882L (Copper Conductive Tape)
• UGlu^® 600 Dashes Sheets
• Pro^® Spike Fluorescent Stack
• Pro^® Gaff
• An old hardcover book
• Scissors
• Sharpie
• Individual LED lights
• Coin-size battery
• Decorative gems
• Optional: other tapes, like Pro^® Gaff and Pro^® Duct
• Optional: other items you want to stick on!

Step 1: Sketch your Design & Gather Materials

First, you can trace the shape of your book onto a sheet of paper, then use this template to sketch out what you want your book to look like. This is the design we came up with, but you can always cook up your own imaginative design! Remember, you can always adjust your design mid-way (like we did) because tape is easy to peel off and re-stick wherever you need it.

Then we gathered all of our craft supplies together, from the scissors and coin battery, to our Pro^® 46 (crepe paper tape), Pro^® Sheen and Pro^® 882L (conductive copper tape.)

Step 2: Tape Over the Cover of Your Book

Grab your hardcover book – whatever size of book you like. We picked up this old copy of Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” in Russian (a pretty spooky way to start, right?)

Begin by choosing a base color to “wrap” your book cover from front to back with. We chose Pro^® 46 crepe paper tape (in this nice bright shade of purple!) to wrap our book. Pro^® 46 has a nice texture, and it’s easy to peel up and re-position as needed.

Go ahead and completely tape over your front cover, spine, and back cover. Smooth it down with your fingers. Use your scissors to cut any excess away. You can even fill in the inside cover with the same color, or a different one.

Step 3: Create Decorative Elements with Tape

Now you can start making decorative elements out of tape! We wanted to have this big spooky eye smack dab in the middle of our cover, so we cut it out of white Pro^® Gaff.

What’s the secret to cutting any shape neatly out of tape? You have to stick it down first!

Take your tape and lay it out in several sheets on your table or work surface, making sure each strip overlaps the previous one a little bit. If you’re creating a big shape, make a second layer on top so the whole thing is nice and sturdy.

Then you can peel the whole thing up and cut it with scissors, just like you would cut paper! When you’re done, you can stick your cut-out shape onto anything. Or you can add more tape layers on top, like we did for the eye using Pro^® Spike. Check out our Vimeo video above (or click here) around 00:17 to see how we stuck everything together!

Since most these tapes are write-able, you can draw or write anything right on top of the tapes. We used a Sharpie to color in the pupil of our eye, and to write out “Spells” on our book label. See 1:20 on the video for how we created our book label, and 2:07 for writing in “Spells.”

We added many more decorations to our book with tape – like shiny corners and a shiny spine using different colors of Pro^® Sheen. Watch the video to see how we added borders and shapes on our cover, too. You really can make anything with tape (with a little patience and imagination!)

You can stick objects to your spellbook using UGlu^® Dashes, too! We wanted to add some shiny gems to our design, and dashes were the way to go. It was way easier (and way less messy) using UGlu^® Dashes to stick these gems on than if we had used a hot glue gun or modge podge. And it’s safer for adults and kids alike to use! You can get creative and add some spiders or snakes or other creepy and interesting things to your spellbook.

Step 4: Make it Glow, Baby!

If you watched the video, we bet you’re wondering how we made our spooky eye glow bright green. Well it’s time to reveal our secret!

All you need are some individual LED lights, a coin battery, some conductive copper tape like our Pro^® 882L, and some Pro^® Gaff to cover it up and tape the whole thing together.

Each LED light has two wire legs. You’ll need to attach one leg to one side of the coin battery, and the other leg to the other side. We arranged our LED lights around the battery, then used Pro^® 882L to stick the legs down to each side. The conductive copper tape ensures each LED light will get plenty of juice. Then we used black Pro^® Gaff to cover our glowing contraption up, and stuck it to the center of our eyeball.

Ta-da! Now, want to make your own spellbook?

We’d love to see your amazing spellbook creations! Do you think you can use Pro^® 882L copper conductive tape to make a crazy light-up circuit (like this)? Or maybe you’ll use some other tapes, like Pro® Glow, to take your book to the next level? Just post to social media and tag us @protapes to get our attention!

The post Create a Magical Glowing Spellbook using Pro Tapes®! appeared first on Pro Tapes®.

This weekend, I wanted to see if I could create the classic tie-dye tshirt craft using Pro Gaff^® tape. So I got my white tshirts, some Rit^® fabric dye, and three different sizes of Pro Gaff^® tape to put to the test: ¼ inch, 1 inch and 2 inch. 

Method #1: Classic Spiral Twist Tie-Dye

First, I tried your standard spiral dye and striping dye. Except here, I didn’t use any rubber bands – only Pro Gaff^®!! For this method, pinch the center of your white shirt and twist it until you’ve reach the end, then tuck in the edges. Tightly wrap a few pieces of pre-ripped Pro Gaff^® around your twisted tee. 

Method #2: Scrunch & Tape Dye

Fold your shirt (or just tightly scrunch it together), then tightly bind the shirt together using Pro Gaff^®. Do this repeatedly down the length of the shirt. Just leave some space between each piece of tape.

For both Methods #1 and #2, I submerged the shirts in warm water for a little more than 30 minutes, occasionally stirring. Once lifted out of water, I did notice that the tapes which were only stuck to the t-shirt fabric lost their stick and fell right off. But the areas where the tape stuck to itself (adhesive to adhesive) proved to be the most successful! I think this helped create a seal against moisture and gave the Pro Gaff^® extra strength. Funny thing is… the dye even dyed the tape!! 

Check out this video to see Methods #1 and #2 in Action:

Method #3: Masking Effect

The last technique I tried was a tape-mask effect. I hand ripped and cut the Pro Gaff^® tape to write out the word “love” and a zig zag design. I also used tape to pinch up a few gathered areas around the bottom of the t-shirt. I tested this method out on both a canvas tote and a cotton tee shirt.

This time I did not submerge the fabrics in water, I used a squirt bottle instead. I found that it worked the best if I did not over-spray with the dye. It seems like too much dye starts to “un-stick” the adhesive.

If I were to do this method again, I would use a spray bottle instead of a squirt bottle. This way, you can have more control over the amount of dye that comes out. I believe this would be very successful as long as the fabric doesn’t absorb too much liquid too fast!

All in all, I think using Pro Gaff^® for tie-dye was a success! You just have to use it the right way. And I think the shirts look awesome!! What are your thoughts? Comment below (and let us know if there’s another craft we should try to tape-ify!!)

The post Pro Tapes® for Tie-Dye: Success or Bust? appeared first on Pro Tapes®.

I found these used cornhole game boards at a garage sale – they were smaller than usual, which I thought would be great for my kids! But the paint on them was pretty faded, so I sanded them down to a real smooth surface, thinking I would spray paint them after.

 Unfortunately, the past few days here have been rainy, so we’ve been stuck inside and unable to spray paint life back into them. Of course the kids have been impatient and playing with them in the house “as is.” But the bean bags just don’t glide over the recently sanded surface. 

I looked around to see what I could do – and as always, Tape is the answer! I found a few rolls of Pro^® Splice 50 Tape- which is a SUPER smooth tape. Very thin, light, and even a little bit stretchy. I started layering 2” stripes of Pro^® Splice from the top of the boards down to the bottom edge. I folded the edges over and created nice corners– kind of like wrapping a present. Next, I applied White Pro^® Splice all around the edges, but I didn’t stop there…

I then added Pro Glow^® around the outer edges and Pro Glow Gaff^® inside the center cut-out holes. I cut the Pro Glow Gaff^® into smaller pieces so I could easily mold them around the cut-outs. In case anyone got confused there: Pro Glow^® is a shiny, smooth vinyl tape, whereas Pro Glow Gaff^® is matte like regular Pro Gaff^®. These are two different products! I used the Pro Glow^® vinyl tape on the surface of the board because it is smoother than Gaff, so it allows the bean bags to slide right down the board.

NOW with the added Glow, we can play all day, and all night!! Check out the results!! I must say, this tape is so smooth and really does allow for the bean bags to do their thing and glide right over the surface! 

I’m SO impressed with how fast and easy it was to bring these boards back to life without needing to use paint. Not to mention, these tapes gave the boards a very Pro^®-fessional new look!! Pro^® Splice 50 was a great choice for this project: its smooth, stretchy to pull and wrap over edges, thin enough to be able to layer, and strong enough to hold up on wooden boards!  And Pro Glow^® with Pro Glow Gaff^® added a really unique somethin-somethin to the final result

The post Cornhole Game Board with Pro Tapes® appeared first on Pro Tapes®.

HOW TO ENTER:

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED AS OF 8/08/2019. Congratulations to our winners!!

Step 1: Go to our Instagram (@protapes) and follow our Instagram page.

Step 2: Find our Birdhouse Giveaway post and comment with which birdhouse you’d like to win (“Shiny Blue” or “Beach Condo”).

Step 3: That’s it! Winners will be announced one (1) week from the date of the announcement post. There will be one winner for each birdhouse!

Winners must be of legal age for entry (18) and must live in one of the 48 contiguous states. Winner must have a physical mailing address capable of receiving the winning package (we cannot ship to a P.O. box.)

Summer is in full swing…

…so we wanted to make some arts & crafts that are fun for this season! It’s been a hot one so far, and we’re all looking for shade to keep cool in – and our feathered friends need shade too! I decided to make these birdhouses inspired by the bright yellow sun and blue ocean waves at the beach. The best part about using tape to decorate these birdhouses is that it’s safe to use for all ages! Let’s jump in and see how I made these.

Birdhouse #1: Shiny Blue

Materials:

• Wooden birdhouse
• Pro^® Duct 120 in 1” and 2”, yellow, blue, and green
• X-ACTO^® blade

This birdhouse is 100% Pro^® Duct 120– which is a great weather resistant choice! Not to mention, the colors will never fade. This house will certainly attract frequent guests!

I started from the bottom up… Wrapping the edges and base in 1″ green Pro^® Duct 120. I used an X-ACTO^® blade to slice the corners and keep the folds over the corners crisp.

I took out the wooden perches and vertically laid down blue duct right over the holes, hand tearing each strip. Then once the sides were completely sealed in blue 2″ Pro^® Duct, I felt around for the circular holes and trimmed them open again with an X-ACTO^® blade.

I then covered the corners and edges of the roof, layering from the bottom up with multiple rows of 1″ yellow Duct. As always, it was easy to hand-tear each piece – I didn’t have to deal with scissors for cutting sticky tape.

Birdhouse #2: Beach Condo

Materials:

• Wooden birdhouse
• Pro^® Artist Tape, ¼” and 1″
• Craft paint
• Embellishments (in this case, rocks, glass pieces, lady bug toy)
• EHB tape (Pro^® 5050C)
• X-ACTO^® blade

I wanted to try something a little harder for this fancy birdhouse – but it was still pretty easy, using Pro^® EHB! First, I used Pro^®’s repositionable Artist Tape (seen in orange) to mask off the areas I choose to paint. This birdhouse has so many fun angles and small details, so I wanted to keep the lines clean and crisp. I can quickly hand tear and place the tape straight (even around the curved windows), paint, then peel off the tape.

Then, to add more details, I dug out some ¼” Pro^® 5050C (extra high bond, double sided adhesive tape). It looks like the “red” tape in the pictures, but the red part is actually just the backing paper (we call it a liner in Pro^® terms!), which you peel off to reveal the clear tape underneath.

What’s great about EHB tape is that it bonds very strongly, but it’s safe and easy to use – unlike a hot glue gun! Although hot glue guns are very popular for crafting, it can be a hassle dealing with the wire, finding a plug near your work station, all those messy hot glue “strings” that form (if you’ve used hot glue, you know what I mean!) and don’t forget burning yourself by accident! Ouch!! This EHB Pro^® 5050C tape has none of those problems, so it’s great to use even with kids!

The ¼” size Pro^® 5050C EHB tape perfectly fit around the trim of the birdhouse’s roof. I was able to cut and trim the adhesive with the help of my X-ACTO^® blade (you can use scissors here instead.) Once the roof was taped up, I peeled back the red liner and sprinkled some blue colored gravel over the sticky areas. The gravel had no problem sticking right to the EHB tape and strongly stands in place.

I perfected this process (and sped things up a bit) by dumping out some gravel on a sheet of silicone and pressing the open adhesive down into the gravel. So, whatever works best! I recommend the silicone sheet for this process to ensure the EHB tape won’t stick to your surface! EHB tape like Pro^® 5050C is a great choice for adding small embellishments like this because it is so strong and easy to use, and it is also weather resistant – so it will hold up to all the elements of the outdoors.

I continued to bedazzle the house with Pro^® 1″ EHB and some glass beads. Here, I just applied the adhesive to the back of each bead and trimmed the edges with my X-ACTO^® blade (you can use scissors, too), peeled off the red liner and affixed to the house. When using extra high bond tape, you may want to measure or pre-mark your surface before you apply, because once it’s on… it’s on there for good!!

I loved how simple this craft was for both birdhouses! It’s easy enough for adults to decorate, but it would be great for kid’s art classes and families doing a craft project together. If you make a birdhouse using our tape, be sure to tag us on social media with @protapes !!

The post GIVEAWAY: Summer Birdhouse Craft with Pro Tapes®! appeared first on Pro Tapes®.