I recently shared this wonderful link to an Instructable hack via Facebook, aptly titled “Cassette Tape Business Card Holder” – which prompted another German-Kenyan friend of mine to share her beloved Kamaru (.KE), Florence Wangari (.KE) and Amity Meria (.BF) tapes with me – so that I would turn them into cool business card holders.
Prior to the introduction of mp3 in the early 1990s, I considered my tape/cassette collection large. But most of these were just copies and/or recordings from the radio (that’s what we did back in the days). So I lacked cool covers. Lea, the friend with the cool tapes, obviously doesn’t like Florence Wangari’s Gospel and knew she’d be in for a cool mod:
“Start with a cool tape, like these. And no, don’t be horrified that this “museum piece” Apple data tape is being destroyed–no one ever saw it when it sat in a drawer!”
..writes the creator of this instructable. And there’s one more thing I’d like to add: the best covers for this mod are those made out of softer plastic. I am not really sure about the materials used on these cassettes, but I guess it’s PE for the softer and PP for the (cheaper) transparent ones. Anyways, if you’re planing to do this, try what works best for you. And make sure your business card will fit! My current one is from Moo.com and doesn’t fit as good as the white one of my Indian flat mate:
The tapes are well preserved, btw! @Lea: you’ll find them included in the envelope :-)
Just where would I be without my Leatherman?
N.B.: the ruler on the backside = reason why I love moo.com. You won’t keep the business card of some regular dude in your pocket. But when it comes with a cm/in ruler, a simple piece of paper may have some added value.
“Kikuyu Folks Songs” – how epic is that?
Adults only!
Nice! :-) (And I have more sympathy for this tape than for the Apple // Data cassette ;-).
anyway, as much as I like the idea of this business card case, I still have three concerns:
– How do you prevent the paper label (“Kikuyu Folk Songs”) from wear& tear within a few months of riding inside your pocket
– How do you lock the case and prevent your cards from falling out
– Isn’t this whole case a little bit bulgy
Otherwise: Like! :-)
I also still have a huge box full of my old cassettes at home. Recently, I changed some of them into “virtual” albums:
Download all the songs (easy) or record with your old stereo and convert into mp3 with your laptop (more work). Then scan the cover of your tape. Put it all into a directory. Bingo, you have your old album, and the best thing is: this is legal, since you already paid for those songs! ;-)
What happens after that, is your old tapes become even more obsolete than they already were. Until now, you just kept them at home but never played them for the past 20 years. Now that you’ve got them at hand in your computer, you know that you most probably will never again play those tapes, ever. But if you’re like me, you still can’t throw them away. Well, good news: Now you can make plenty of business card cases out of them! Solves all your problems and doubts about what to do with your teenage-history! :-)