Review : Scotch Pop Up tape

by Leyla [Thisdayilove] - 17:00

An email came into my inbox recently which had me very excited, it promised to 'Make Christmas easier'. This I really liked the sound of. Whilst I enjoy buying presents for my friends and family and watching the excitement on my girls faces as they open their presents, there is one thing I absolutely loathe, and that is wrapping the presents. It doesn't matter if its an awkward shape or an easy shape, I simply hate wrapping presents.

If like me you feel the same and dread the stress, the email promising 'to make Christmas easier' would have grabbed your attention too. I really hate it when I get the paper all lined up neat and then go to get some tape and either the tape I've pre cut, and stuck either on pieces of furniture or along my face and arms ready for use, gets stuck together or doesn't come away from the surface I've stuck it to ready for use and then the paper I have spent ages getting all neat and tidy comes away. Then I have to start again. sigh. Can you feel my pain yet? And yes as I am typing I am thinking about wrapping those presents and putting it off, or at least I was.

You see what landed on my door step following this email took me a bit by surprise, it really did. I stopped and looked and thought, 'How can this make Christmas easier?' Not wanting to be defeated I decided to give it a go.

I took the Scotch pop up tape out of the packaging, and followed the instructions on the back. Slide open the door, insert pre cut tape strips, close door, pull out checked tab. Easy, set up was quick and simple. Now to decide where to place the handband dispenser. The elastic on the underside meant that I could fit it either on the back of my hand or round my wrist. I tried both and settled on wrist, it just felt more comfortable.

The dispenser is not too large, and it isn't heavy. It also caused me no discomfort to wear. The idea is simple, once you are ready for a piece of tape you simply pull the tab from the dispenser and a ready cut strip is available for you to use. Very easy. I would feel a lot more comfortable having the girls in the same room as me when wrapping a present as I would not have to be constantly watching where the scissors are. Also the girls could in theory help to wrap, as there are no scissors needed.

I found the dispenser very easy to use and also very quick, it seemed to take less time to wrap a present than normal. My stress levels also felt a lot lower. I think also there was a lot less wastage than usual as I had no pieces of tape stick together that had to be thrown away. One slight draw back, and its only a little thing, is the dispenser is solid plastic on an elastic band. Very occasionally a pre cut tape strip would be a bit harder to pull out and as a result I had to pull quite hard on the tab. This resulted in the hard plastic case flicking my wrist as the elastic band pulled it back to its original position. Might just need to be less forceful next time.

The price of the refill packs seems to be quite reasonable too, at just under £1 per block going on an average of a couple of online stores.. One website has a pack of 3 for £1.85. Each block contains 75 strips so should last for a few presents at least.

So whilst my wrapping skills themselves may need a little work, I really am surprised with the Scotch Handband dispenser and really do think it is going to make this Christmas easier.