Duck Tape Sword and Shield

When I was making my Duck Tape Mailbox, it took a little more silver Duck Tape than I thought. I asked the wonderful folks at The Duck Brand if they’d send me some more and they sent me a LOT more. When I saw that box of silver duck tape, I knew I’d have enough to make a sword and shield for my kiddo. You can easily make the sword and shield for your child with just a few supplies – each takes less than 30 minutes, it took me about 45 minutes to make both combined.

To make the Cardboard and Duck Tape Sword and Shield, you need:

Cardboard Box
Silver Duck Tape
Glitter Duck Tape (trust me)
Colored Duck Tape (I only used the white, but if you’re making several for different kids, go with different colors)
Scissors
Craft Knife
Pencil or marker

I started off by tracing the shape for my shield on the cardboard.

I cut out the shield, and a handle. I have the “grain” of the handle going vertically, it would be better horizontally (you’ll see why later), but vertically works ok.

I covered both the shield and the handle with the silver duck tape. On both sides.

Then trimmed it.

I used a piece of my colored duck tape (white in this case) and centered it on the edge of the shield. I folded it over on both sides, but before folding it, I clipped the tape around the curves.

Before adding the handle, I put creases in the handle, starting about 2″ from one end, and ending about 2″ from the other end. You can see here if the grain of the cardboard was going the other direction, it would have been easier, but this isn’t terrible. Just a little more difficult. And not quite as clean looking.

Tape the handle to the back of the shield. Just pick whichever side of the shield looks better, make that the front, and tape the handle to the back.

Shield is done! Now to move on to the sword. I drew the sword on the same cardboard box. Here’s a tip: make the sword short. Kids will still love it, and it is harder for them to do damage. Has something to do with the length of the lever providing more force… but I’m a crafter, not a physicist, and I know that kids with shorter swords, wands, and sticks do less damage, and that’s good enough for me!

I covered the sword in silver tape. And then I trimmed the excess.

Then I added the silver glitter duck tape to the handle. You wouldn’t think that silver glitter duck tape could be “manly”, but it totally works here. Instead of looking like sparkly glitter, it looks like hammered metal. Very manly!

Then I added torn strips of my colored duck tape to the handle to create a design. If you’re doing several, you can match the trim on the shield to the trim on the sword to make matching sets. Perfect for a party!

This Cardboard and Duck Tape Sword and Shield are super easy and fast to make. And my son loves playing with his. He wants to paint his own logo on the front of the shield, which I think is an awesome idea, and I can’t wait to paint it with him!