Allie Principe is one of our very first washi and crafter friends. Ever since our first meet-up at the Arts and Crafts Fair at the Collective back in 2011, we've been in awe of her handmade and digital design projects. Unlimited supply of crafty creativity!
We are so grateful for her sharing with us today her tutorial on how we could use washi tape to make our rooms more personalized! Take it away, Allie!
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Hello! I’m Allie and I’ve been in love with
washi for more than a year now. I love how how multipurpose it is – you can literally use it for anything and everything!
One of my resolutions for this 2013 is to do some sprucing up in my room, which is why today I’m going to show you a couple of simple home improvement uses for your washi tape. I live in a rental, and what’s great about
washi tape is that it’s a good-looking but non-permanent way to add some color into your walls.
For both projects, you’ll be needing the above materials.
Doors can come as plain as can be sometimes, so why not use some washi tape to liven it up? My door is just plain white with that typical grooved design, so I decided to trace out the outlines with my favorite Hey Kessy neon pink washi tape and followed this simple procedure:
11. Measure how much washi tape you need for each side and cut at the desired length. Do this for each side.
2. Don’t worry about overlapping the tapes on each other, we’ll fix that in a jiffy. With your X-acto knife, slowly trim the excess tape for a nice, clean edge.
3.
If you’re OC like me, you can use a straight edge so that you’re sure you’re cutting a straight line. Be careful not to scratch the paint on your door though!
4. I repeated this process for all the groove edges. It’s a good idea to collect all the excess tape you cut off too, as you can use it for some other projects. Nothing should ever go to waste.
And that’s how simple it is! Doesn’t it look so much more fun and personal already? If you have a plain door, I can imagine you can create interesting patterns on it like maybe a chevron or striped pattern with washi.
Using the same simple process, I decided to create some washi art on my walls, since wireframe geometry seems to be all the rage lately. If you have a lot of blank
walls in your room, it’s a good idea to consider because you can change your design every so often when get sick of it, and maybe even get to reuse the washi tape if you’re lucky!
Here are some tips if you’re planning on trying out this project:
- Though washi tape has relatively weak stickiness, make sure that it won’t ruin your wall paint once you decide to take them out! I’ve found that it works better on concrete walls. It would be best to test it out first.
- Take a few steps back every time you add a new line of tape. Sometimes you think it looks okay when you’re up close but then it comes out skewed when you move away from it.
- Be ready to part with a good amount of tape. It almost broke my heart when I saw how much neon pink tape I had left when I finished my door! But remember, you don’t buy washi tape just so because it’s pretty to look then store it away forever. Seeing my pink door never fails to put a smile on my face, so use washi to do things that you love and make you happy!
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PS You can see her other projects
here :)
PPS All photos belong to Allie.
