OOOHHHH! That is great material!  Your kitties look very happy! Well done!

I used three normal-sized (NOT the mini-sized) rolls of tape, plus had to send the BF out to get one more, for 4 total rolls.  And that's not even making it "correctly," which, according to the tutes, is wrapping yourself 3 times - we only did it twice.  Just attaching the duct tape and having your partner run around you in circles, hence wrapping you, DID NOT WORK for us.  Strips of tape (like a foot long) worked for the first layer, with smaller strips (6 inches long) for the second layer.  Smaller strips are easier to conform to your boby without making big bunches or folding over on itself.  Plan on the process taking a loooonngggg time - like two hours.  Pee beforehand (duh).  As stated in some of the other tutorials, you can then paper-mache the duct tape dummy to make it stronger and more stable, but I just didn't have the energy for that.

After looking at everyone else's fabulous duct tape dress forms (see StarterKit, Naked_Ninja, smileygirl, XOcrazy4uXO, etc etc) I got the bug too!  So, late one night, I convinced my beloved boyfriend to wrap me up in duct tape.  See me in progress!



And here's the final product, after stuffing it with the insides of an old pillow and mounting it on an old lamp stand:



I'm pretty happy with it, although I do think that my chest area somehow came out a little bit smaller than it is in real life.

I do want to add a few bits of advice for anyone else thinking of making a dummy: rule #1; no matter how much duct tape you THINK you need, buy two extra rolls.  After being abandoned at 11:00 pm by my boyfriend for half an hour while he searched for a 24 gas station or grocery store, during which I couldn't bend over, sit down, or lift my arms above my head, I learned this lesson the hard way.  Buy extra tape!!!

And secondly, when it comes to your rear, I'd recommend using a cheap skirt or just an extra long t-shirt as the base for applying the duct tape.  I used old leggings, and when it came time for my boyfriend to cut me out ... it was a little unnerving.  If I could do it again, I'd go commando with a skirt.  It's hard to manuever around those buttcheeks with a scissors!

Anyways, thanks to those before me for your excellent tutes and inspiring images.  I hope I can inspire someone else, too!

I finally got around to making a duct tape dressform (pictures will be posted later - it turned out fantastic!) and used a broken standing lamp as the post to hold it up.  But now, what do I do with the lampshade? We hate to throw it out, but we're creatively-challenged when it comes to useful ideas.  I don't want to recover it, because I already have all the lampshades I need.  Does anyone out there have an idea for turning a lampshade into something else?

In my latest issue of Jane magazine, I found a short article about a website that I am now in love with.  Go here, to pinkofperfection.co m.  The site has weekly videos that you can watch in quicktime (less than five minutes long) of the site's host, Sarah, doing miscellaneous crafts and such.  There's a video of her recovering an old kitchen chair, making cheap wall art, even making a yoga mat slipcover, as well as different recipes and even showing us not so chic girls how to put on makeup.

I admit I'm a little in love.  Not only is she amazingly cute and funny, but she actually SHOWS ME how to do stuff, which is helpful for the not-so-creative.

Anyways, check her out.

Ooh, I like how those shorts fit you a lot.  I like how the button's on the side.  Did you use a pattern?

And by the way ... that's the cutest, funniest action shot I've seen.  Congrats!

So I was watching a terrible movie (The DaVinci Code, sorry, but I thought it stunk) and my mind started to wander ... how to make a cheap and easy cat bed?

So here's my baby Bella, in her favorite bed, aka a cheapo cardboard box:



I decided to use the minimal amount of time, energy and money to make her more comfortable.  First, I cut out the base in the shape of an oval, and cut the sides off in one long strip, which I then curved and taped (duct tape - see, I said cheap and easy) to the base to hold it's shape.



I then laid out my fabric and placed the box on top, using that as sort of a pattern to cut out 2 ovals, about one inch larger than my oval (to accomodate stuffing).  If I had thought about it, I would have taken a picture, but you get the idea.  I also measured the sides (5 inches) so I cut a 12 inch width of fabric (twice the height of the sides so it could be folded over, plus an inch of give on each side to accomodate padding) with a length a little longer than the oval is around.  I sewed one oval to my strip, hence making the top and sides.  Um, I've never written a tutortial before, so I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense.  Hopefully the pictures some it up.

Then I cut open an old pillow (NOT the down kind, but the weird extra-firm type that is too firm for me).  I made duct tape loops (so the sticky side is facing out) all over the base, inside side, and outside side.  I pulled off big pieces of the pillow and stuck it to the duct tape.



As you can see, I discovered that my cat loves duct tape.  Who knew?  Anyways, ...



Once the now-oval box is covered in padding, I slipped on the cover that I sewed earlier with my sewing machine.  I sort of tufted the seam that holds the top cover and the sides through the cardboard so the the pillowy top stays down and doesn't float all around.  I just did it sporatically in eight spots so when you look at it, you can see definites sides and a base, plus sewing through cardboard is hard.  If I had thought about it more, I would have figured out a way to make it so that I didn't have to sew the sides to the bottom panel by hand, but oh well.  It's the bottom so who's going to see it?  And the fabric I used was an old curtain of my mothers, with a funky colonial pattern on it of advertisements of carriage makers and nautical suppliers.  I think it's awesome.

So anyway, here's my baby girl in all her new-comfy glory!



I hope you all like it!

I think that's really beautiful.  Some of my furniture (especially one couch - it has a hole through the top so big you can see all the springs down the side) is begging to be recovered.  I wish I had the guts.  Bravo!

I love it.  Love it.  LOVE IT!

Not only does it make me wanna have kiddies, but I suddenly have a hankering to redo my actual kitchen ...

Good job!

I love the chair! I'm very inspired by rosie's idea of making a set: four different chairs in different shapes with different birds/animals on them.  Very cute!