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Duct Tape Mardi Gras Mask Craft

By: Michelle Melnik; Macaroni Kid Deerfield/Greenfield

February 16, 2012

My daughter and I attended a festival quite a few months ago, where they were doing crafts with duct tape.  I, at the time, had never made anything with duct tape, so we nervously sat down and made a fabulous crown using only duct tape.

Ever since, I have found that you can make just about anything with duct tape.  Today, we are making Duct Tape Masks for Mardi Gras.

Material:

      Duct Tape (in different colors). We used purple and green, since Mardi Gras colors are purple, green, and gold.

      Pipe cleaners

      Scissors

      Mask template (optional)

Directions:

- Start by putting strips of duct tape on a table, sticky side up.  I find that this step is much easier if you tear the duct tape rather than using scissors.

- Cover all the sticky duct tape with more duct tape, so that it's no longer sticky.

- Draw or trace the mask (if you have a template) using a ball point pen.

- Cut out your mask.

- Make a small fold where you want the eyes and cut the fold.

- Put another strip of duct tape on the table sticky side up.  Then place a pipe cleaner on the duct tape.

- Roll the duct tape around the pipe cleaner.

- Make a small hole using a hole punch and add the pipe cleaner.  We placed this in the hole and added some duct tape to the back to keep the pipe cleaner in place.

- Decorate your mask.  Kids can draw on the masks (ball point pens work best), attach feathers, or make different shapes using duct tape.  To attach the different shapes or feathers, roll a small piece of duct tape so that it's sticky on both sides.  Put this on the back of the shapes or feathers to attach to the masks.

Now we are already for our Mardi Gras celebration!