Duct Tape Embellished Flip Flops

For this project, I strayed a bit from my typical home décor projects to join in on a fun craft challenge posed by three fellow bloggers Shrimp Salad Circus, Her New Leaf, and WhollyKao. The challenge – revamp an old pair of flip flops however you want. Introducing my fabulous duct tape embellished flip flops!

It may be Labor Day, but hopefully there is still a little flip flop weather left in Chicago. With plenty of old flip flops cluttering the bottom of my closet, I happily accepted the myDIY Craft Challenge.

As I started to think about what I could do with them, I also remembered I had several rolls of unused colorful duct tape lying around. You may remember me buying this Kid Made Modern tape on a whim. Well, I now have a use for it! Using them to decorate my flip flops was a fun little project I did while watching an episode of Craft Wars – here’s how I did it.

Supplies for Duct Tape Embellished Flip Flops

• Flip flops (the cheaper and the dirtier, the better!)
• Brightly colored or printed duct tape
• Ruler
• Sharp scissors
• Nail polish remover or Goo Gone
• Gorilla Glue (or similar)

How to Decorate Flip Flops

Given that I completely winged it on this one, you can too! So feel free to follow my steps or adopt your own:

1. I measured the thickness of the flip flop and it turned out to be 1/2 inch, which happened to be exactly 3 lines of my tape. Having the lines as a guide helped simplify the cutting and measuring process considerably. (Note how dirty the edges of these flip flops are – I can’t stand how quickly light colored flip flops turn drab like this, so covering them up with some bright tape might be just the perfect solution!)

2. I started cutting out the tape while simultaneously wrapping it around the flip flop, starting in the front. Once I made it all around the flip flop, I tried to line up the tape to make it as seamless as possible.

3. For the straps, I played around with a couple techniques but ended up wrapping around a narrower piece of tape (2 lines thick)

Some Tips and Tricks I Learned

• Duct tape can be tricky to work with and likes to build up residue on your scissors quickly, making it difficult to cut. I used some nail polish remover and a cotton ball to get it off so I could continue cutting. Something like Goo Gone would also work.
• My duct tape adhered pretty well to the rubber expect at the arches, where the flip flop curves in a bit. The tape started to separate, but a few dabs of Gorilla Glue did the trick to keep it in place.

Update as of 9/8/2012: The thinner tape I wrapped around the straps did start to shift a bit leaving a sticky reside behind.  Next time I would just put tape around the base, as that is holding up well.  Or, try a different solution for keeping the tape in place (one reader suggested trying Mod Podge in the comments below!)

Total Time: 1 Hour
Total Cost: A Roll of Duct Tape (although you’ll only use a tiny amount)

I’ve already worn these a couple of times and love that I was able to give a pair of dirty old flip flops a new life. I'm not sure the duct tape will be the most durable over time, but even if I can wear them a few more times this season I think it will be worth it.

What do you think? Would you do this to your flip flops? Check out some other ways crafters transformed their flip flops here: