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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

DIY Tent Weights

Slightly over a year since the last post... oops. I shall try to jump back on the wagon (once again).

I just recently did the craftiest thing ever, and I want to share with everyone out there. I'll set the stage first.

Last year, when I was doing waaaaaaay to many Fall shows, I decided the buy myself a new and improved pop-up tent, with the works (side walls, banner pole, leg weights) off of eBay. It was amazing, except for the fact that in its most compact state, it was still about 5ft tall, and far too big to fit in the trunk of Chris' car (so it just hung out a few feet for each show).

When I made the decision to move back down south, I decided to ditch (by ditch, I mean sell) the tent and its accessories and go back to my old ghetto tent. Man, oh man, do I wish I had kept those leg weights! Those things are worth 60-80.00 for the set, and some sort of leg weighting is required for most shows.

Here is my craft and brilliant idea! Make my own awesome leg weights that are super-cute and cost about 20.00 total! Let's go step-by-step.

1) Assemble the supplies:
     1 50 lb bag of sand
     1 package of lawn refuse bags
     6 rolls of personalized duct tape
     Scissors
     shovel (or strong person to pour sand)
     tarp or bucket (to keep things tidy)




2) Cut off the lawn bags at the bottom fold (You will have a lot left over; I bet we can find something crafty to do with that).

3) Starting for the bottom of the bag, start wrapping with duct tape. I went across the bottom in strips instead of wrapping. Wrap around the bag to the top of the side fold (the top of the "triangle" on the side, where the bag folds out).

4) Open up your bag and fill it with about 10 lbs of sand. It took me 27 scoops with my shovel to get 10lbs! Your bag will not be full. That's ok.

5)close the bag and fold it against itself, as if it were empty and needed to be put away.

6)wrap around the bag again, covering the remaining space that was left unwrapped from before. Make sure you get the very top too, to seal it off. It should end up looking like a pocket-book!

7) Make a strap by folding a length of duct tape over on itself and then attach that to the bag using more tape (and any method you'd like).

8) Repeat 3 more times!

9) attach these to your tent legs with bungee cords or ribbons or something else awesome.