Washi Tape
with Heather Greenwood
Washi tape is a decorative tape that you can use in many ways in your mixed-media projects. It is transparent and comes in several fun patterns and solids. It’s a fun way to adhere embellishments and ephemera to a surface and has a variety of other uses in design as well.
Materials
• Washi tape
• Gel or matte medium
• Acrylic paints and inks
• Mixed media paper (art journal, canvas)
• Assorted stamps and stencils
• Brushes
• Palette knives
• Brayer
• Sponges
• Scissors
• Stickers, book paper, tissue, and other ephemera or paper scraps
• Shape punches or die-cuts
Collage Background
Step One Create a background using gel medium or matte medium to adhere and seal several strips of washi tape. Cover the whole page or canvas. Because the tape is transparent you will be able to see any paint or pattern below the tape. This example uses washi tape in vertical stripes, but you can mix it up in many directions.
Step Two Once you’ve finished filling the page with washi tape strips, you can start layering other mixed-media techniques over the top and still see patterns from the tape in the background below.
Design Element
Washi tape can be used as a single part of the design of your project as a whole. Layer strips to bring attention to where you want people to look on the page, or use the tape to ground an object so it’s not floating in your design, such as the bind on the notebook below. The tape in this example gives the bird a place to rest its feet.
Masking
Washi tape isn’t very tacky and not a permanent adhesive, so it can be lifted up and moved around when needed. This means that it can be used for masking off areas on a background to create a pattern.
Step One Create a background by layering assorted acrylic paints and stencils.
Step Two Once the background is completely dry, add washi tape in a pattern.
Step Three Paint over the tape, and then pull it up before it dries completely to reveal the pattern. This will prevent pulling up dried paint and will give you crisp edges. Once completely dry, add your finishing touches.
Step Four Once completely dry, add your finishing touches.
Shapes & Embellishments
Cover a piece of scrap paper with strips of washi tape. Once you’ve filled a page, use your scissors to cut out shapes to use as embellishments. You can also use shape punches and die-cuts to cut out the shapes. Add the embellishments to your page using gel medium to adhere it.
