I'm not even going to try to apologize for the above completely awful, terrible, cheesy pun. I'm pretty sure the time has come in my life that I can embrace my absolute and complete nerdity. I've been told before that the things I write belong in Dad Jokes, which I'll take as a compliment — thank you very much.
Tape Measures & 2nd Graders
In any case, I'm here to talk about a product that we've had some fun playing with here at the ChromaLabel shop lately - Adhesive Ruler Tape. I have a son in second grade, and he's starting to learn about how rulers work, with all those little imperial and metric lines. While it's a fantastic skill for him to learn, and I'm super duper happy about it, I'm none too pleased that my heavy-duty Kansas City Chiefs tape measure "somehow" broke last weekend.
I really couldn't be too upset with it. Heck, breaking is the #2 function of tape measures, isn't it? Try and see how high up in the air you can make it stand without it falling over...
2nd Grader Meets Ruler Tape
So while it could have been a less costly mistake, the timing was perfect, because it gave me the idea to bring home a few rolls of the adhesive ruler tape. I haven't worried anymore about his high-impact learning skills, and I'm finding strips of the yellow ruler tape on walls, doors, our TV, stuffed animals – even the baby sister.
He's completely proving to me that one of the best uses of this product is as a teaching aid for education. I'd love for a roll of this adhesive ruler tape to be in every elementary classroom in the country, and every home too!
My coworker, Patrick, brought some home to his two-year-old son too: you can see him in the pictures having a blast with the tape. While he's not quite at the age to completely understand its use, the bright yellow color is attractive to him, and Mom can certainly use it right there on their art and crafting table!
While it's a great teaching tool for kids, it's also crazy-convenient for adults! And at only pennies per "ruler" it's affordable too.
How Ruler Tape Works
This yellow sticky tape has a black imprint showing metric and imperial measurements, which repeat every twelve inches/ 30 centimeters. In between each 'ruler' there's a small gap so you can easily tear off a new ruler by hand or cut it with scissors. All in all, there usually ends up being about 41 complete rulers on the roll.
The other neat thing about ruler tape is that you can stick it to most surfaces, peel it off later, and there wont be a sticky gooey mess to clean up! Adhere it to surfaces like wood, fabric, glass or plastic and take if off later without any residue staying behind.
It's also easy to write on with a felt-tip marker if, for example, you wanted to put a few sections of the tape together on a craft table and rewrite the measurements. The tape is made of plasticized paper, which make it stronger than masking tape and easy to write on. Keep in mind though, that ball point pens wont work nearly as well as a sharpie.
Other Uses for Ruler Tape
While education is an excellent use for this product, that certainly hasn't deterred people from finding all sorts of uses for ruler tape. Here's a quick list:
- Sticking it on a craft table
- Adhering it to your office desktop or laptop
- Decorating gourds
- Creating homemade jigs
- Stick it on a workbench
- Installing shelves in tight areas
- Sticking it to the sewing machine
- Photographs well for eCommerce
While this list is by no means comprehensive, we'd love to hear about any new uses you find with Ruler Tape!
Update from April 2021
There are tons of at home projects this tape comes in useful for. Whether it’s installing cabinets, measuring the length of a window, or putting this tape on the side of a door to keep track of the kids’ ever growing height, this tape is useful, and easily removable.