I recently wrote a wrapper class implementing the .NET System.Security.Cryptography.TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider to quickly allow you to encrypt a plaintext string and return the Base64 encoded string of the encrypted bytes created by the TripleDES cipher (and decrypt that string back to plaintext!). This provides a very simple way to encrypt and decrypt your data without the need to store it as a binary image. The VB.NET code is shown below:
Public Class TripleDES
        Private _k, _iv As Byte()

        Public Sub New(ByVal key As Byte(), ByVal iv As Byte())
            _k = key
            _iv = iv
        End Sub

        Public Property Key() As Byte()
            Get
                Return _k
            End Get
            Set(ByVal value As Byte())
                _k = value
            End Set
        End Property

        Public Property IV() As Byte()
            Get
                Return _iv
            End Get
            Set(ByVal value As Byte())
                _iv = value
            End Set
        End Property

        Public Function Encrypt(ByVal plaintext As String) As String
            Dim cipher As New System.Security.Cryptography.TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider()
            cipher.BlockSize = 64

            Dim cipherText As String
            Using cipherTextStream As New IO.MemoryStream()
                Using cryptoStream As New System.Security.Cryptography.CryptoStream(cipherTextStream, cipher.CreateEncryptor(_k, _iv), System.Security.Cryptography.CryptoStreamMode.Write)
                    Dim bytes As Byte() = Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(plaintext)
                    cryptoStream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length)
                    cryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock()

                    cipherText = Convert.ToBase64String(cipherTextStream.ToArray())
                End Using
            End Using

            Return cipherText

        End Function

        Public Function Decrypt(ByVal ciphertext As String) As String
            Dim cipher As New System.Security.Cryptography.TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider()
            cipher.BlockSize = 64

            Dim plaintext As String
            Using plaintextStream As New IO.MemoryStream()
                Using cryptoStream As New System.Security.Cryptography.CryptoStream(plaintextStream, cipher.CreateDecryptor(_k, _iv), System.Security.Cryptography.CryptoStreamMode.Write)
                    Dim bytes As Byte() = Convert.FromBase64String(ciphertext)
                    cryptoStream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length)
                    cryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock()

                    plaintext = Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(plaintextStream.ToArray())
                End Using
            End Using

            Return plaintext

        End Function
    End Class
To use it, simply instanciate it with your Key and Initialization Vector. Make sure your K and IV are the same when decrypting data you encrypted with them!