How to Make a

Duct Tape Heart

Ring
2nd Edition PDF Tutorial

Duct tape artist: Melissa Howarth

Photographer, layout designer:
Michele Howarth
Technical writer: Mat Sillito

© 2014 Michele Howarth, Quiet Mischief and Company

 Materials Needed
-Duct tape
We prefer Duck Brand tape for our projects; other brands are too thin, too thick, or not
sticky enough to form the tiny petals needed for this project. We also suggest that you
work with a solid color first to get the technique down before using patterned tapes.

-Scissors
Non-stick is best, but any will work as long as they are sharp. Whatever scissors
you have, be prepared to remove sticky residue from them. (Wet wipes work well for this.)

-Ruler
A plastic ruler is best, because measuring is easiest when you can stick the duct tape direct-
ly to the ruler, and duct tape will pull bits off of wooden rulers.

-Cutting board
An actual cutting board is not necessary, as they are expensive. Any plastic surface that
you can stick duct tape to will do. Melissa carries around most of her petals on two plas-
tic projector sheets taped together to form a folder, and the rest of them inside an empty
notebook that she covered with duct tape.

Check duct tape before you buy it to make sure it’s up to snuff! Duck Brand released batch-
es of black, red, white, orange, and other rolls that were completely sub-par a while back
and some of those rolls are still hanging around. Also, any roll of tape could have been in-
correctly wound on the roll or had other issues. Look for rolls like the pastel purple on the
left: all strings, both horizontal
and vertical, are visible, straight,
and even. Compare that to the
orange tape, where the vertical
threads are unevenly spaced
and the horizontal threads are
completely invisible (possibly
not even present). This tape will
pull off the roll unevenly, stretch
itself out as you try to manipu-
late it, and isn’t as strong as the
good roll.

© 2014 Michele Howarth, Quiet Mischief and Company

 Making Petals
Cutting the Petals
1. Cut three strips long.
of tape 5 3/4” (14.6
cm) long. Each strip 4. Cut each piece in half length-wise a third time.
will make 32 petals. Each piece of tape is now just under ¾” (1.9 cm)
long.
2. Cut each piece in
half length-wise. 5. The pieces you have are the correct length for
The easiest way to petals, but are much too wide. Cut these in half,
do this is to fold the strip in half, back side togeth- this time width-wise. Each piece is now just under
er. Then slide the scissors through the edge, hold- ¾” (1.9 cm)
ing the tape taut, and cut. Each piece of tape is now long and half
just under 3” (7.6 cm) long. the tape roll
wide.
3. Cut each
piece in half 6. Cut each
length-wise, piece in half
using the same width-wise a
technique in second time.
step 2. Each Your pieces
piece of tape is are now the
now just under correct size
1.5” (3.8cm) for petals.

Folding the Petals

1. Take one of the petal strips and hold it from
either end, with the exposed sticky side up.
2. Fold the top right-
hand corner inward on
itself, at a 45 degree
angle, so that the side is
now parallel to the top,
bringing the fold so that
about one fifth of the
original length is still ex-
posed. This should leave a small strip of tape still
exposed between the side and the top.
3. Now fold over the top left-hand corner, towards
you, just past the line from the previous fold, so
that the exposed strip
adheres to exposed tape.
4. This completes this
petal. Set aside, and re-
peat these steps for all the
remaining strips.

© 2014 Michele Howarth, Quiet Mischief and Company

 Making the Heart
1. You should have 92 pet- petals are not directly opposing, but slightly rotat-
als from your three strips. ed. Continue placing and wrapping petals in this
Separate 33 of them from fashion, with the points slightly rotated from the
the rest. previous petal, until you have placed all 33 separat-
ed petals.
2. Take one petal from the
33 you set aside and hold it
so the point of the triangle
is toward you and the sticky
side is up.

3. Fold over the right-

hand edge. Make this fold as small as you can.

4. Continue folding/rolling
the right-hand edge, making
the roll as tight as you can at
the bottom. This is the center
of your rose.

5. Grab another petal,

again from the separated
petals. Hold this one so
the point of the triangle
is away from you and the 9. Petal 34 begins
sticky side is up. the right side of the
6. Place the narrow end of the heart. With petal
center petal on this new petal, 33 pointing down
centered and with points (marked with a green
facing the same direction. petal), place 34 (lime
The point of the center petal petal) on the top
should be pointing slightly left right side. If the ring
from the point of the new petal. were a clock, petal 33
would be at 6 o’clock,
7. Wrap the ends of the new pet- and 34 would be
al around the center petal. placed at about 1 o’clock.

8. Notice that the points of the 10. Place 35 and 36 (lime petals) spiraling out from

© 2014 Michele Howarth, Quiet Mischief and Company

 34, clockwise.
11. Petal 37 will begin the
left side of the heart. It
will be placed at 11 o’clock,
using the orientation
described in step 6. Petals
38 and 39 will spiral out
from 37, counter-clock-
wise.
12. Petal 40 returns to the
right side, going just above
and slightly to the left of
petal 34.
13. Petals 41-44 will spiral out from 40, clockwise.
14. Petal 45 will return
to the left side, being
placed above and slight-
ly to the right of Petal
37.
15. Petals 46-49 will
spiral out from 45,
counter-clockwise.
16. Petals 50-54
return to the
right side, with
petal 50 being
placed above
and slightly to
the left of petal
40 and the rest
spiraling from
it.
17. Petals 52-54 continue the spiral on the right
side.
18. Petals 55-59
will be placed on
the left side of the
heart, with 55 above
and slightly to the
right of 45, and the
© 2014 Michele Howarth, Quiet Mischief and Company
rest spiraling count-
er-clockwise.
19. Petal 60 and 61
return to the bottom
of the spiral, petal 33.
Rotating the ring 180
degrees, so that petal
33 is now on top, place
petal 60 just to the left of
petal 33, and 61 just to the
right. These petals should
be placed to sharpen the an-
gle created by 33, giving the
bottom of the ring a more
definite point.
20. Rotate the ring 180 de-
grees, so the point is on the
bottom again.
21. Petal 62 will be placed at
a sharper angle away from
petal 61, as well as full petal
width away. This creates about a 120 degree angle
between the right side of petal 61 and the left side
of petal 62. There will be a large gap between these
two petals, however the
gap will be filled shortly.
22. Petal 63 will be placed
opposite petal 62. Return-
ing to the clock metaphor,
62 and 63 will be at about
5 o’clock and 7 o’clock,
respectively.
23. Petal 64 will be
placed on the right
side, above and
slightly to the left of
petal 50 (step 16.)
24. Petals 65-75 will
spiral out from 64,
clockwise, with this
row ending slightly to the right of petal 60.
 25. Petals 76-86 return
to the left side, spiral-
ing counter-clockwise.

26. Again turn the

ring 180 degrees, and
place two or three more
petals at the bottom to
complete the tip. The
number and placement
of these petals will depend on how the other petals
have been placed and your judgement as to what
looks best.

making and
attaching the ring
band
one inch longer than this.
2. Cut this segment of tape
length-wise into three nar-
row strips. One of these will
be your ring band, and the
other two can be discarded
or set aside to make more
ring bands.
1. For US ring sizes 1-8, crease as a cutting guide.
cut 3” (7.6 cm) of tape;
for sizes 6-15, cut 4” 4. Cut from the
(10.1 cm). Or you can long side up to
measure using your the edge of one of
finger: wrap the tape the cuts made in
around your finger and step five, remov-
cut a segment about ing and discarding the resulting rectangle of tape.
Cut down to the edge of the other cut from step
five, from the opposite long side, and discard that
resulting rectangle as well. You should be left with
two small protruding rectangles of tape on either
end. It is important that these be on opposite
sides, for example, when holding the strip, one
missing rectangle should be on the bottom left and
the other on the top right, or on the top left and
the bottom right.

3. On the narrow sides make a ½” (1.3 cm) incision,
parallel to the longer sides, exactly in the middle of
the smaller sides. The easiest way to do this is by
folding the strip in half (non-sticky sides together)
and making a crease along this fold, then using the
5. Fold the tape in half length-wise, adhering the
exposed side to itself. The strip should now have
the sticky side unexposed, except for about a half
inch on either end. These sticky ends should be
facing opposite directions.

© 2014 Michele Howarth, Quiet Mischief and Company

 6. Holding Connect the two
the strip exposed sides of duct
flat, bend tape to the heart base.
and connect
the two ex- 12. Using one of the
posed sides strips you made in
overlapping step one, place one
slightly; the exposed end on the
amount of back of one of the
overlap can strips that is now
be adjusted attached to the heart
to determine band size. If the two exposed ends base. Wrap this strip around the base of the heart,
touch it can make readjusting difficult. You can
also size the strip of tape directly on your finger as
pictured. This makes the ring band.

7. Using the
ring-colored
duct tape, cut
three strips
approximately
1/8” (3 mm) between the heart and the band, pressing the
wide. Cut these exposed side to the heart base as you go, and con-
in half, width- nect the other end to the other side of the already
wise. attached strips.

8. While facing the strips the
same way, connect two in the
middle, at approximately a 20
degree angle.
9. Lay a third on top of these,
facing the same direction again,
angled between the two previous.
13. Repeat step 12, wrapping on the opposite side.
14. Take the last strip and cut
it in half width-wise. Place
these short pieces of tape over
the ends of the strips already
holding the ring band in place.

10. Place the exposed

side inside the ring
band, attaching perpen-
dicularly. Ensure that
this placement opposes
the adjustable part of
the ring band, so that it
may still be adjusted.

11. Place the heart on

the outside of the ring
band where the attach-
ing strips were placed.

© 2014 Michele Howarth, Quiet Mischief and Company

 Frequently
Asked Questions
1. Why aren’t my petals sticking to each other?
There are a few possible reasons why your petals aren’t sticking. Make sure your hands
aren’t sweaty and that it isn’t too cold; both of these conditions will interfere. Older petals
that have been stuck on a cutting board or plastic sheet for too long will lose some of their
stickiness. Also, if you’ve been working with the same petals for a while (taking them apart
and putting them back together again) they may become less sticky.

2. My heart is coming apart! What happened?

This could happen for many reasons; for examples, see FAQ #1. Another reason could be
the brand; of the ones we’ve tried Duck Brand is by far the best. Another reason is if you
are using regular silver-colored tape; the rings we’ve made with regular silver, whatever the
strength of the tape, have all come apart. Some rolls of Duck Brand are sub-par (see the
taping tip on the materials page) and will not hold together well. And lastly, there are times
when rings come apart for no apparent reason, and all you can do is shrug and move on.

3. May I sell the rings I make with your tutorial?

No. This tutorial is copyrighted and is for personal non-commercial use only. This means
that you cannot make copies of your tutorial except for your own use, and you also cannot
sell rings made using this design.

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This booklet is copyrighted by Michele Howarth of Quiet Mischief

and Company. It is for personal non-commercial use only. Do
not reproduce, and do not use the products made from this
booklet for anything other than personal use.

© 2014 Michele Howarth, Quiet Mischief and Company