Category: Life Hack

Fixing paper tears

On By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack, music

The roomba ate a page of my kid’s guitar lesson book. I’m not sure how the book ended up on the floor, but I suspect a cat.

Photo description: classic guitar lesson music with multiple messy, wrinkled tears

I ordered document repair tape, because I didn’t have any, and regular transparent tape applied at this magnitude would put further stress on the paper.

The hardest part was getting the tape away from the liner the first time. The box is conveniently set up to dispense the tape and manage the separation process. Getting is started is just a little tricky.

Photo description: paper repair tape set up with the box as the dispenser, with the tape on the left and backing on the right

The tape doesn’t look transparent, but when applied to the paper the ink and pencil marks show through clearly. The tape is also thin, which is why it needs the backing, but is nearly imperceptible when applied. I made sure the tears lined up and where the paper split, that the ink side was visible. To reinforce the repair, I put the tape on the back of the page as well. The damage to the page was extensive, however, I was able to get it stabilized and usable, but not pristine.

Photo description: repaired page with all notes intact and readable

Overall, I can recommend the document repair tape for quick repairs on paper that is referenced frequently, or eaten by the robot vacuum.

Coloring sheets

On By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

My youngest loves coloring books, but it is difficult for her to find uncolored pages in the bound books after a while. I took my heavy duty guillotine paper cutter and cut off the spine of the coloring book, freeing the pages so they could be sorted into colored and uncolored.

Photo description: 400 page capacity guillotine paper cutter with a deconstructed coloring book, with a colored page and uncolored page pulled out of the stack

My youngest was pleasantly surprised with the fresh stack of ready-to-color sheets, and I was pleased with how fast and clean the cutter worked. Tearing sheets out of a book is often messy and frustrating. By cutting a 1/4 inch off the spine, the pages are freed from the glue easily.

Once my concept was proved, my youngest agreed to let me process the rest of the books. Any book that only had one or two colored pages I left alone, but the books that were mostly colored were cut and sorted.

Photo description: hanging organizer with coloring books at the top and individual coloring sheets at the bottom

I now also have a stack of colored sheets that can be displayed and scanned easily for posterity.

Rewrapping a cat post

On By CarynIn Cats, Craft, Life Hack

The favorite scratching post in the house needed a fix-up.

Photo description: cat scratching post with the jute rope broken and falling off

When I last rewrapped this post, I took some of the carpet off the top to provide a higher area for scratching since I have longer cats. From the picture, it really wasn’t necessary, even the big cats scratch the middle of the post. To rewrap this time, I purchased 160 feet of 1/4 inch jute rope.

Photo description: bundle of jute rope, pliers, and a staple gun for the rewrap project

My future self is not going to be pleased with me, because as I wrapped the rope, I stapled it down on the back every few inches. Last time, I only stapled the top and bottom, which made it easy to remove, but I believe shortened the time of use. The last wrap lasted slightly less than a year.

The most helpful thing this time around was that my eldest held the rope above the scratching post, so it was easier for me to wrap the post from the bottom up smoothly.

Photo description: freshly jute rope wrapped cat scratching post

The new rope, while marketed as 1/4 inch, has a smaller diameter than the old rope, and a tighter twist. It will be interesting to see if it holds up better.

Wrinkled leather

On By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

In my stash I have some nice thin goat skin leather. Unfortunately, it was wrinkled and was starting to feel a little dry.

Photo description: wrinkled goat skin leather

I used a generous application of Weiman’s leather conditioner to ease the wrinkles and return the suppleness.

Photo description: restored leather and a bottle of Weiman’s leather conditioner

Other leather conditioners, such as mink oil, would have also worked to add oils back into the leather.

A little water proofing

On By CarynIn Life Hack

The heated cat house behind the coop had been used as a scratching post, compromising its weather proofing. I bought some outdoor canvas and applied it to the roof with hot glue, just to give it a modicum of extra protection.

Photo description: new canvas hot glued onto the top of a heated cat house sitting on an outdoor table

It isn’t my neatest job, but it fixed the issue. It will also be a test of the hot glue to fabric bond as the weather changes.