Author Archives: Andrej Zivor

Custom Packaging Tape to the Rescue

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t’s gotten to the point where I keep multiple varieties of custom packaging tape in my vehicle at all times. There have just been too many times when I’ve needed a quick fix, and it was the electrical tape that slipped under the driver’s seat, or the barricade tape left over from a Halloween prank, that came to the rescue. Like the one time I was dropping my daughter off for her first day of junior high, and one of her backpack straps broke clean off. Besides my consternation at the fact that a brand new backpack was kaput on day one, my daughter began to panic at how seventh grade was starting out.

Custom Packaging Tape

You probably know what I’m going to say next. If it’s, “And then I whipped out some custom packaging tape…”, you would be correct. My cousin had given my son a bunch of half-used aisle marking tape from the last time he’d remarked the floors to his auto shop, and I had quickly confiscated the red roll for my custom packaging tape stash. It’s a good thing I took the red kind, too, because it matched perfectly with my daughter’s One-Direction backpack. For the one and only time I thanked God for all of those bright, pouting lips. I saw that years of listening to all of that crooning, and stumbling across too many awkward doodles, had led up to the purchase of this backpack so that I could use the red tape and become the coolest mom in the entire world.

Custom Packaging Tape

A little bit here, a little bit there, and not only was her backpack fixed but she now had a custom striped design on her straps. As she walked into school with renewed vim and vigor, I overheard someone say to her, “Cool tape job. I should do that to mine…”. That’s right, world; you can’t touch this! That was a pretty amazing day. It was not so much an amazing day when I fell down some stairs and my shirt split down the side seam.

Custom Packaging Tape

It wasn’t the most perfect thing, but if I wouldn’t have had some custom packaging tape at my disposal I would have been forced to expose myself to society, whereas I was able to mend the tear with some strips of adhesive enough to get me home fully clothed. And the thing that really sucks is that was my favorite shirt, too…

Custom Shipping Bags for Everyday Use: Part 2

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As a kid I always really loved that song Auld Lang Syne. It’s got a bit of a haunting-ness to it, and it always gave me the chills. Loosely translated, it means “for old times”. This doesn’t have much to do with custom shipping bags, but it’s the beginning of the new year and I wanted to put in a plug for 2016. And now: custom shipping bags, and how you can use them for everyday projects, purposes, problems, etc.

Custom Shipping Bags

I was talking in Part 1 about how, if you are like me, you probably have a nice stash of custom shipping bags accumulated from the holiday season: grocery bags, both plastic and paper (we already talked about what to do with those), bubble bags from the Precious Moments figurines your grandmimi still sends you every stinking chance she gets, poly bags which were for making up little Christmas sacks that your kids could pass out in class, and some really snazzy eurototes that most of your presents came in because you are an adult and it is assumed that you no longer like to tear up wrapping paper. Before you throw all of that stuff away, let’s talk about different ways they can be used now that the holidays are over.

Custom Shipping Bags

The bubble bags. I use those to wrap my ornaments in. You have probably put all of your ornaments away by now, and I don’t blame you for not wanting to drag out the boxes simply for the sake of repackaging. So if you don’t want to throw them through the attic hole so that they are waiting for you next year, use to protect precious objects in your china cabinets and what not. If not, the kids love these things.

All of those leftover poly bags, that make such cute little handouts, can safely be tucked away and used for birthday favors in the future. Or for passing out samples for your home business. And of course all of those eurototes can be put in an actual plastic tote for when you need to wrap something. If the eurotote is blatantly holiday-themed, you are just going to have to wait until next year to reuse them. Or, once again, there is something about the simplicity of such a thing that is charming to a child. My kids play with these things for hours. Whatever the case, don’t be frustrated by leftover custom shipping bags. They don’t have to be a one trick pony; get creative!

Custom Shipping Bags for Everyday Use, Pt. 1

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Well, Happy New Year, everyone. It’s that time again. 2016. Over three hundred glorious (right?) days ahead of us. I’m sure there will be some amazing, and some terrifying, things lurking, ahemm, waiting for us this year, but I know that it’s all going to be okay in the end. Anyway, before I get too sappy, let me get into talking about all those custom shipping bags you got over the holiday season, and how you can wind up using them for everyday projects, problems, and everything in between.

Custom Shipping Bags

Consider all of those bags from the grocery store that you’ve been stashing to the side. How many trips did you take because you forgot one stinking thing for the recipe and twenty plus ticking time bombs are counting on you to feed them before they explode? All over each other, and your house… So, in your haste, you tossed all those grocery bags, plastic and paper alike, onto the back porch. Well, now I will tell you a use for them. A friend of mine keeps a little bin on her kitchen counter, and she lines it with one of those plastic grocery bags, and she puts her compostable stuff in there: egg shells, chicken pieces, leftovers… She takes it out every day so that the big garbage can doesn’t start stinking before it’s even halfway full.

Custom Shipping Bags

Remember how you were trying to light the annual, celebratory bonfire, and you were having a really hard time doing it? All of those nieces and nephews staring at you, their roasting sticks at the ready, silent looks of passive aggressive embarrassment and condemnation on their faces. You tried to tell them that it had just rained, but the snicker triggered something in your brain and you spent the next hour rubbing two sticks together until you finally got a blaze.

Custom Shipping Bags

Well, remember the paper grocery bags (which also count as custom shipping bags)? If you had stuffed them with leaves you could have used them as a giant sack of tinder and put all those crazy kids to shame. The awe that would have been shining in their eyes, with the reflection of a massive blaze that roasted many, many marshmallows that night…

There’s more to say about custom shipping bags, and how they can be used for the everyday. Join me in part two to pick up some other great ideas!

 

Packaging Tape: It’s Time to Stock Up

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Have I mentioned that I started catching up on The Walking Dead? Of course I have, mentioned it that is. I’ve been talking about it a lot lately, and how with technology these days these shows and stories are so insanely convincing that you almost begin to wait for breaking news to hijack the TV and tell you that the real zombie apocalypse has finally happened. I feel like, every time, I have to verify that I am not normally a paranoid doomsayer. As a matter of fact, the end of the world is not something I’m particularly worried about at all.

However, I’ve begun to reflect on what would be beneficial to have around in the hypothetical post-apocalypse. You know…just in case. I have come to the conclusion that packaging tape would definitely be in my list of top five. I’m being totally serious. Packaging tape (such as duct tape, aluminum tape, electrical tape, filament tape…) is more or less technologically advanced rope. It can be used to tie someone to a chair. It can be used to secure you to a tree branch so that you can get some sleep without worrying about falling into the gaping mouths and outstretched hands of the cannibals below. (Did someone just say “brains”?)

If the strap on your backpack breaks, not a problem! Make a new one out of duct tape. If your shoe falls apart, no problem! The fan belt? No problem. Need someone to stop talking or crying or screaming or complaining? Any and every tear and hole in your clothes can be repaired with packaging tape. My new and greatest idea is this: armor. Take a tube sock and cut the toes off and another hole so that you can wear it like a glove that goes all the way up to your elbow. Then wrap it a couple times in duct tape. No biter is going to be able to get through that! Do the same thing with your neck and lower legs.

This will be really helpful in reducing anxiety. It would also be helpful if people had better hearing and overall just paid more attention- I certainly would not be the one who manages to get bit by a zombie in a huge wide open field. But if I did I would admit my mistake like a woman, chop off my arm, and seal the end of my nub with packaging tape. It’s clear to see why it’s time to start stocking up, people.

Everyday Uses for Stretch Film, Part 2

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As evidenced by the title, this is the second part in a two-part series on the everyday uses for stretch film. A quick recap: in the first part I briefly discussed that sometimes when we search for a subject like ‘stretch film’, we find out about their “cousins”, and may indeed discover a better product for what we are trying to accomplish. I spent the majority of part one discussing shrink film, one of the cousins of stretch film. I mentioned a couple everyday uses for it, and I will mention one more before moving on.

My church puts on a Christmas play every winter, and it’s kind of a big deal. Not a big deal as in “oh we think we are so cool because we have the best play ever” but because the volunteers work really hard, the children take it seriously, and the parents are very proud. So, every spring, a DVD of the Christmas musical comes out for people to buy. Recently, the church invested in some shrink film (don’t forget the heat gun!) and they began wrapping the DVDs, since a lot of people wind up giving them as gifts throughout the year.

Stretch Film

It’s been well appreciated. I have yet to purchase one, but my kids aren’t old enough yet to be in the play. How about poly sheeting? This is also a cousin of stretch film. Surprisingly, a common use for poly sheeting is a drop cloth. When my husband and I moved into our fixer-upper we invested in a canvas drop cloth. It has been good, to say the least, but if we had known about poly sheeting we probably would have gone with that instead because it comes in different thicknesses and you can get a variety of sizes, too.

Also, there is black poly sheeting which we began to use in our home garden. After tilling up the ground and making the furrows, you spread out the plastic sheeting, cut some holes in it, and plant the seeds in the holes. The black is supposed to be good for ground plants like cucumbers and pumpkins and whatnot. Whatever the case, we had a really good crop this past. The moral of the story is that stretch film is not as narrow a subject as it appears to be. I guess nothing really is…