I hate spending money. Especially on a wallet, to hold my money. So I decided to make my own wallet out of duct tape.

The benefits of making your own wallet as opposed to buying one, is that you can customize it to fit your own needs. For instance, you can add a little pocket for change, or a window for a picture of your girlfriend. Also you can pull off the duct tape and fix things you want to change.

I am by no means an expert, but I've made about three wallets with varying degrees of success. So hopefully, I can give you some tips that I figured out along the way.

Step 1: Materials

you will need the following materials.

1) Two old cards that you don't need (I used my girlfriends old student ID and library card)
2) duct tape (I bought a roll at a gas station for $2)
3) scissors
4) anything to decorate your wallet with (patches, stickers, etc)

There is a lot of duct tape that comes in interesting colors, if you want one that's a bit more colorful.

You'll want to do this on a clean table, because your duct tape is going to stick to it at some point.

Step 2: Backbone

Duct tape is very flexible and your wallet can get all mashed up unless it has some sort of backbone to keep it pretty much in the same shape. That's where the old cards come in.

Cut two strips of duct tape and use them to cover the two cards. You'll want to space out the cards enough for a good fold. Also, the outside tape needs to be bigger than the inside tape (or it won't fold very well).

Step 3: Clean Edges

So one of the biggest problems with duct tape wallets is that they are sticky, and over time if you don't do the edges right, you money will stick to the inside of your wallet (which might be a good thing). So as you cover the cards try to cover the edges and corners by going over them, instead of having these little sticky pieces sticking out. Sometimes this requires some creative gift wrapping skills to get it to all come out right, but don't make it too bulky, or it will make the whole thing messier. If you mess up, you can always rip the duct tape back off and do it again.

Step 4: Bill Fold Inside

To do the bill fold, you need to start with the inside, to keep it clean and prevent any sticky seams from sticking to your money. Start by adding two strips to the edge. This will be the inside of the bill fold. Make them long enough to wrap around the edges. Better too long than too short.

Step 5: Bill Fold Outside

Cover all the sticky parts, remembering to cover the edges. Also remember to keep this part a little longer because it's going to be on the outside of the fold. You should start to end up with something that starts to look like a wallet.

Step 6:

Now this is where you get to start making choices about what you want in your wallet. Generally, the most important thing for me is having enough little pockets for all the little cards. So for this example, I put three pockets. But it's not incredibly difficult to put in six.

Pockets are basically the same as the bill fold. Stick a strip to the bottom and fold it backward and cover the sticky part. It might take a few tries. Make sure you try a real card in it to see if it works. Make sure it's clean with no sticky parts.

Step 7: More Pockets

If you want to put more than one pocket on a side, put a strip about halfway down and fold it over. Then cover it with a second strip.

It also helps if someone holds it for you. :)