Christmas wrapping and b****y selotape!!!

They have changed Sellotape. It's much thinner. It's awful!

Congrats for getting down to the job though.

I threw the roll across the room. The bloody tape stuck to anything within reach and even managed to tear some of the paper before actually doing what it's supposed to do.

When I was a Brownie, we had to learn to tie a parcel with string and the proper knots. Then they invented sticky tape. I once took out a crown, biting a piece of Sellotape in the absence of scissors which I can never find when I need them.

When OH retired last year I asked him to bring home his large heavy dispenser he used in his office its big but it works well.. I used to have the same problem as all of you , what I used to do was use the back of a kitchen chair or bedroom window sill to stick loads of strips that I cut to length and stuck the tips on the chair/sill then I just pulled a strip off as I needed it..

I do similar to tanith but I don't cut strips. I'd love to know how you manage that without the strips curling and sticking to themselves.
I pull an two or three inches away from the roll and then stick the roll to the table or chair. IYSWIM

I've finished this tranche of wrapping but have left all the gubbins out as Denis the Postman will be here later this afternoon and I don't want to have to get everything out all over again!

I have a heavy-duty dispenser, but the darned tape is split before you can blink. I pull it out tentatively and slowly, making encouraging and soothing noises to it, but to no avail! I then swear at it!

I nearly cut my finger nails this morning - I am glad that I didn't as things would have been even worse - not a hope of finding the end.

Fings just ain't what they used to be. Now when I was a girl, sellotape was sellotape......

Grumpy Gran
x

You can get dispensers with little short bits of sticky tape for parcels. Much easier than fighting sellotape (or Durex as I believe it is known in some countries)

Put some talc on it to find the end [of sellotape, not Durex]

I have a good friend who does all my wrapping for a little lunch !
I am like soop

Little short bits of Durex would be no use at all for any of the men I have known!

I will look out for this parcel sticky tape - do you have a name for it?

Talc......what a good idea on the sellotape I mean !!
luckygirl is it genuine Sellotape? as I find the cheaper more economical brands tend to split easily.

If you Google "gift wrap fixers" you get links to several kinds.

I put a small button on the sellotape end - when I remember to.

Yes, but you have to make it difficult for the grandkids, at least,to unwrap it. That means lots of sellotape.

DH turns the end back a bit. That really annoys me.

Me too jingl I hide my Sellotape dispenser thingy from him too, or I'll never see the light of it again.
It does make things easier but refilling it is a right faff.

DDIL's parents present to us comes from abroad and it literally solid sellotape, DDIL says her father like to make really sure it won't unravel!

It's not losing the end that is the problem; I just leave the end fixed to the cutter on the dispenser. It is the tape splitting lengthwise and providing a piece of tape that tapers to nowt, then breaks off, that drives me mad.

Thanks for the idea Elegran - I have sent off dfor some of these parcel fixers.

I always use Scotch Magic tape. So much better-behaved than sellotape, although not as transparent on shiny wrapping paper.

Also have an office type sellotape dispenser; used to 'borrow' the one from work so bought one of my own when I retired. wouldn't be without it.

I have a heavy duty dispenser just like that, but it does not stop the darn stuff from tearing lengthways - it is just not strong enough tape. I'll have to try Scotch Magic Tape - and then no doubt it won't fit the blooming dispenser! Huh!

Thats just the same as mine Tegan but without the Ho Ho Ho ..

Nina I don't know how , it just works for me.

I wrap so few presents these days that my sellotape is probably still the good old fashioned thick stuff...

I might ask for a Sellotape dispenser for Xmas. Preferably one with Ho Ho Ho on it.

The Magic tape comes with its own dispenser (only a plastic one) but you don't actually need one, it never splits or tears lengthways and is far more re-positionable than sellotape.

Try it - you'll never look back!