While strolling through Target the other day, I happened upon an ordinary office supply that has gotten an extraordinary facelift. Did you know you can get printed packing tape now? Just look at those gorgeous patterns!

I grabbed a couple of rolls and noodled over it for a few days to think of an unusual way to use them. Jo has been talking about Christmas so much lately that I decided to get a little crazy and make a Christmas stocking. Out of tape. Yeah, really!

My initial thought was that I would make a fabric stocking and then cover it with tape, but I was afraid that the tape wouldn’t stick to the fabric. So, I decided to work with fused plastic. I used the same technique to fuse the plastic that I discussed in my fused plastic sandwich wraps tutorial, and I restricted myself to only white bags so that I’d have a nice finish color.

Then I cut two stocking shapes out of my plastic.

I wanted to sew the two pieces together, but My Honey and I have just moved into a new house and while I have unpacked my sewing machine, I haven’t yet found the cord to it. (How did they get separated, anyway?) So I used some clear packing tape instead to tape up all the sides, leaving the top open.

Then I got to the fun part! I started adding strips of the striped tape to the stocking, taking care to line the pattern up with each strip. The tape is fairly opaque, but you can see through it a little, so it’s important to not overlap it if possible. Also, the white background really helped the colors shine.

I kept going until the whole thing was covered. Doesn’t it look awesome? The tape stuck beautifully to the fused plastic, too.

Next, I flipped the piece over and covered the back, then I trimmed around the edges, leaving a quarter inch or so of tape to make sure there was good adhesion on the edges of the stocking.

The tape-covered stocking wa pretty darn cute, but it still needed some trim, and I still had one pattern of tape to use!

First I wrapped a couple of layers of the red and white zigzag tape around the top edge until I couldn’t see the blue stripes showing through anymore.

I also put a strip along the top edge, folding it inside to create a nice finished edge on the opening of the stocking.

Typical stocking trim is often fuzzy, so I wanted to make something textural with the tape. I cut a bunch of pieces about 3″ long and folded two corners in to create a point.

Then I stuck one piece of the folded tape onto the base layer of zigzag tape, with the point sticking out to the left. I added more pieces on top of that, moving each one over about a half an inch to the right.

I love the look of the overlapped points, which give the trim the sort of abstract “fuzzy” feel that I was looking for.

I am so pleased with how this came out, especially because of the colors and the feel of it. I love glossy things, and this stocking is so shiny and smooth and modern that I just love it to pieces!

It looks pretty cool on my new fireplace mantle, too. I wonder if I leave it there if Santa will come visit me early this year?