#snap clip

Hey, anon! Tape measures sound great, don’t they? I used to keep a small one in my bag because I worked at a game store and the folks who played Warhammer never remembered to bring in their own (and sometimes the store one would get lost). If you’d rather stick with the tape measure, I’ve seen small ones in dollar shops, so you might find one that’s more portable if you’re able to look around. I even got a super tiny one in a Christmas cracker/bon bon one year, so they absolutely exist.

(For folks who celebrate Christmas, or just want to make their own bon bons because they’re fun, it strikes me that there’s a great many stim toys that would fit neatly into a cracker. Hedge balls, bouncy balls, makeup sponges, edamame poppers, kneadable erasers, mochi squishies, spinner rings, bead rings. Remind me to experiment with this at some point! I bet there’s lots of ways to make the outsides pretty stimmy, too, and it’d be easy to leave the snaps out for folks who dislike loud noises…)

You can also cut off a length of the tape from the case, just long enough that you can bend and crack the tape in your hands. Pull the tape out longer than the part you mean to cut off, cut, hold onto the cut edge so it doesn’t retreat inside the case, then stick a couple of layers of gaffer/duct tape over the cut edge, a couple of centimetres longer on both sides than the width of the tape, so when it slides back in the case the hanging duct tape stops the end from vanishing inside. The tape basically replaces the metal stopper you just cut off, meaning you can cut off more pieces another time. Or, just pull the tape as far out as it will go, cut the whole length off and then cut that section up into smaller pieces. For pockets, bags, stim toy kits, desk drawers, your stimming friends…

There’s lots of listings on eBay for those who can’t shop offline, but note that they toss in sewing measuring tapes (made from a flexible plastic that has no snap) and metal measuring tapes together under the same name. Don’t get the sewing ones!

My other suggestions are slide/snap clips and cracking squishies. You can find the hair clips in just about every department and dollar shop - I’ve even seen giant ones at Lincraft. They’re especially prominent in back-to-school sales, where stores sell multipacks in school uniform colours. They don’t snap quite as loudly as measuring tape, but they snap so well they’re recommended to use in DIY snapping squishies.

Check out eBay if you need to shop online - there’s all sorts of listings. This listing has 12 for $1 AUD with free shipping.

(There’s also these cool-looking multi-tool hair clips. The ones in this link cost $4.21 AUD, but there’s several links on eBay. Just in case you want a snapping stim toy that comes with other theoretical functions - said without knowing how well they work in practice, of course, but they look awesome.)

Cracking squishies can be bought or DIY’d. The DIY versions involve gluing a slide/snap clip or a piece of a measuring tape inside a sponge (or two layers of sponge) and then painting the outside to look like a cake or chocolate. (I sewed mine inside a flannelette bag, which you can see in the photo on this post.) There’s a video tutorial on this post, and while I don’t love the feel/texture of the paint, the squishy part is very easy to make. White craft PVA works just fine for gluing the sponges together, and the squishy feel combined with the snap sound is very pleasing!

If you’re looking to buy, I have a few links for cracking squishies under our cracking squishies tag. The cheapest listings I know about are this $6.07 AUD link for chocolate/biscuit squishies on Banggood or @caseydickdanger‘s chocolate cracking squishies on preorder for $3 USD. (Note: they’ve been listed as a preorder for a while now, so if you’re interested perhaps send an ask to find out what the status is. He only ships within the US.)

Silly Squishies has them for $7.94 USD; Aliexpress only sells them in lots for high prices (about $30 and up). I think your best source for these right now, for non-US folks, is Banggood, and I haven’t had any problems in ordering from them so far.

I hope this gives you some ideas, anon, and like always, suggestions are absolutely welcome. Good luck in finding or making a more portable cracking toy!