One of my favorite movies ever is The Nightmare Before Christmas. It appeals to my love of cute, creepy, stop-motion animation, Halloween, Christmas and Tim Burton.
When I spotted burlap-printed duct tape at the craft store, I knew it was perfect for an Oogie Boogie themed project. I’m starting my bag with the same basic principals of my original zippered duct tape wristlet from a million years ago when I took pretty horrible blog photos. I’m going to go through each step again here just to make sure everything is crystal clear. And even though there are a million photos for this one, I promise it’s super easy to make.
You’ll need:
- a zipper
- burlap-printed duct tape
- scissors
- black embroidery thread
- a large needle
- black duct tape or vinyl
- small decorative spider
Whenever I work with duct tape I like to use one of my cutting mats because the duct tape sticks but removes easily from the surface. If you don’t have a cutting mat you can work on a large sheet of parchment paper or any surface where you can easily remove the duct tape as you work.
The size of your zipper will determine the size of your bag. I’m using a seven inch zipper, but you can easily go smaller or larger based on what you want to create. Place the zipper down on your work surface and cover each side with a piece of duct tape. Make sure you do not cover the actual zipper.
Add additional strips of duct tape until your bag is the length you want it to be. I made mine three stripes wide.
Once you’ve added your duct tape on each side, peel it off of your work surface and turn it over.
You’ll repeat the process on the other side of the bag, so that each side is fully covered in duct tape. Once both sides are covered, trim up the edges so that each side is just past where the zipper starts and stops.
You can turn your bag into a purse or wristlet by making a strap at this point. I’m adding a wristlet strap to mine. Just take a piece of duct tape and fold it into thirds.
Secure the strap to what will be the inside of your bag with another piece of duct tape.
Now you’ll want to carefully seal all three edges of the inside of the bag with duct tape. Make sure you unzip the zipper before sealing the last side. This is important!
Ensure that all sticky areas of tape are neatly covered with duct tape. This will keep the bag secure and will make sure that nothing you place in the bag gets covered in any sticky residue. Flip the bag right side out. You’ll notice you have rough edges, but that will be covered up.
Finish off the outside by sealing the bottom with a piece of duct tape. Trim off the excess on each end. Neatly recover the entire bag with more duct tape. Use one strip of duct tape to go around the front and back of the bag each time. Use clean, sharp scissors to make sure you get a clean cut when you trim the tape. Try to keep each cut near the side of the bag. If you mess up or get a wrinkle anywhere, just cover it up with more duct tape. This is a very forgiving project.
If your scissors are gummed up from cutting the tape, you can use tea tree oil to clean them off quickly and easily.
So you may be thinking-, “That was a whole lot of work!” I promise this is a 15 minute project up to this point. Duct tape is so easy to work with and very forgiving. You just need to take your time and make clean cuts.
You have a few options for making Oogie Boogie’s face for your bag. If you have a Silhouette, you can grab this cut file and cut the face you like best out of black vinyl. No Silhouette? No problem! Just right click and download the picture, print it out and use it as a stencil. If you have a roll of black duct tape, place it on a piece of parchment paper to cut. The tape will stick to the parchment paper enough for you to cut it, but it will also peel off easily so that you can apply it to your bag. You can also use a duct tape sheet and skip the parchment paper step.
Now here’s an extra step that you can totally skip if you want, but I think the side stitching is pretty darn cute. A leather needle worked beautifully for this. If you want to use a regular needle, you may need to use a nail or something similar to poke a pilot hole first. Whatever method you choose, just stitch down diagonally in one direction, then up diagonally in the other.
The last step is my favorite. You can’t have an Oogie Boogie without a spider or two. After hunting for a spider that looked good on both the front and back, I found these with Halloween scrapbooking supplies. Even though it’s a sticker, it’s hard plastic. I removed the sticker from the back of the spider and tied a piece of embroidery thread to the zipper. A little glue will hold the thread in place on the back of the spider.
And just so you could see what the other face looked like, I added it to the back of my bag.
If you notice any sticky spots on your bag, just give it a quick wipe with a little tea tree oil. It will remove any residue in a snap.