Man Candy & A Duct Tape Rose Bouquet

Edited: This post originally appeared on:

Thanks Kindra for having me guest post today.

Today I want to show you a less traditional way to celebrate Valentine’s Day with the men in your life. I believe that romance is not just flowers and candy and fancy dinners. Romance is understanding your loved ones and giving them the things that they love.
Enter my version of Valentine’s Candy.
I call it Man Candy.

It started with this old heart box from last year. I saved it thinking I may want to reuse it. I love how forward thinking I am! I probably shouldn’t have kept it in the garage with all the dust from my projects. Whoops!
I put the calculator on the box to give you a feel for how big this sucker is!

I took out Hubs favorite tool and got to work. That’s right, I duct-taped that puppy right up. Manned that heart right up, if you will. I even made a Duct Tape bow. It’s a Manly Bow now, with just a touch of the girl. After I recovered the heart, I used my new Silhouette machine that I won from Be Different, Act Normal to cut out a vinyl saying (Thanks, again, Lorie!). I chose the saying after one of my favorite new songs, Float Away,  from Lindsey Ray. Lindsey’s an up and coming star. If you haven’t checked out her music, do yourself a favor and give her a listen.
I love that girl!

Here’s the Man Candy box ready to be filled:

I know I did good when I was filling up the heart and Buddy came over to see what I was doing. His eyes got really big and he said, “What is this heart of deliciousness? Is it for me?” He was very hopeful. I told him it was for dad and asked him if he thought dad would like it.
He tried to convince me that he would appreciate it far more than his dad would.  Silly boy.

Here’s what made his eyes bug out:

We may or may not have “celebrated” Valentine’s early. Hubs is hoping his man candy box will get a magic refill on the big day. It was a big hit and he was so cute wanting to crack it open that I didn’t have the heart to make him wait 2 weeks for it. If I do refill it on the big day, I will probably include a tie and a tool or camping gadget of some sort. All things Hubs can never get enough of.

To go along with the Man Candy I made Duct Tape Roses.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Colored Duct Tape for flowers

Green Duct Tape for Stems

Floral Wire ( 18 gauge)

Start by cutting your floral wire to whatever length you want it for the flowers. I had a package of 18” wire, so I cut each piece in half.

It’s important to wrap in a kind of upward motion, as this helps the petal open up. You also will want to fold down the edges of the petal to help make it look like a real flower.

For each petal, pull out about 2 inches of tape from the roll and fold  over about 1” – 1.5” of tape.
Next, tear off the petal about 1/4” from the edge. Trim the petal piece to give each petal a rounded edge. The instructions I found on the internet had you folding the pieces to make a point, but the roses don’t look very realistic if you use that method.

The scrunching of the petal is an important step. This helps the petal pull away from the rest of the flower and will help you as you fold the edges of the petal over. In the bottom right picture, you can see how the edge of the last petal is nearly vertical from the upward wrapping motion. Be sure to overlap the edges of the petals to keep it real looking.

After you wrap the base of the stem, you can use a piece of tape the length of the remaining floral wire to cover it and make the entire stem green. I ripped the tape down its length so I was only using half the piece. You don’t need that much tape to cover the wire.

Proudly display your roses in a vase.

Duct Tape roses make great boutonnieres for Prom dates. There are all sorts of colors available these days and a duct tape rose is a forever rose.

Go ahead and think outside the Valentine’s box this year and create something your man will love.

Happy Valentine’s Day.