Washi Tape Christmas Decoration

This makes me happy. This corner of our great room felt a little bare to me at this time of year - this is where we'd normally have a gorgeous 8ft Noble fir tree. But alas, this yeat it ain't happening. But what WAS happening was a little washi wonder!

Washi is so perfect for temporary decorations - it sticks well to paint but peels off easily and doesn't leave any marks!

First up I cut 3 red cardinals with my silhouette machine, along with 2 sprigs of holly and berries

I used a brown tape to roughly design a few tree branches coming out from the corner of the room. I didn't follow a plan; just kept sticking away till it looked right - and I was just tearing off strips of tape as I went - no scissors or ruler required! I wanted to make sure to have a couple of flat-ish gaps where I would position a few little red cardinals so I did keep that in mind as I went.

Then I just stuck on the birds and holly with blue-tack.

And there you have it! It fills the space perfectly and stops me feeling like there's a hole where a tree should be!

Washi Paperclips

OK, it's so easy it barely qualifies as a 'project'. But at the end of the day a few strips of washi can personalize and cutify (yes it's a word!) any boring old office supply paperclip. See...

Project #5 of 10 done from my little manifesto challenge (we'll see how I get on with the other 5....with 6 weeks to go till year end and I admit it's not looking favourable!!)

My first 4 projects are here; washi bathroom makeover, washi chevron wall art, washi tea-lights, washi shelf makeover

Washi Tape Bathroom Makeover

This was my mini DIY bathroom makeover and an opportunity to put my washi tape to a completely different use!

Last month we finally got around to re-painting this room. With a natural tan throughout the house we're slowly but surely making it more our own and individualising some rooms! After I bought a $2 box of tissues with a lovely blue & green stripey pattern on them I was inspired to use that colour scheme for the 'new' bathroom. It's a tiny room with no natural light so I wanted to go really pale - in the end we chose Behr's 'Club Soda' (though I can't say I've seen many blue club sodas?) It's the perfect compliment to the bright blue & green but will also work if I want to change back to the old cream & brown accessories - maybe I'll be changing it up with the seasons!!

I treated us to a new shower curtain (even though it's never been used as a shower, it helps make the room look a bit more finished I think), some new hand towels, and a vase & flowers. I wasn't able to find any artwork or pictures that looked right. So in the end, in desperation I grabbed a 12x12" blank canvas from Michaels to 'do' something with later...

But back to my washi project! Like I said we don't use this shower so the tape getting wet wasn't a concern - it was all about looks and effect! I just ran a couple strips of coordinating washi tape around the top of the bath enclosure - I'm still surprised that this effort didn't involve any measuring or spirit levels - I totally winged it but it worked out well!! Simple but pretty effective to finish off my mini bathroom makeover!

As for the canvas (you can see it in the mirror above the towel rail in the top photo!). I actually was super pleased how quickly that turned out too. I pulled out 4 different acrylic paints I already had on hand and just started painting very rough circles randomly over the canvas. I didn't even wait for the paint to dry or switch out or clean my brushes so the paint started merging together and taking on different variations of the colours. In fact I didn't even have a proper brush - it was a foam applicator! It was hanging on the wall within 1/2 hour of breaking it out of its shrink wrap!! and matches perfectly (how could it not?! - there's so many colours in it!) I got the idea from Elise on her blog - and frankly its genius in its effectiveness and simplicity - and it cost me $6!

And just for reference - here is the 'before & after' picture - you'll see it's not really 'that' different - just a little more colourful and summery! And it is so, so light to walk into the room now - amazing really how a little paint can brighten the space!

This is #4 in my washi tape projects goal for the year. You can also see my washi tape tealights, washi tape shelf makeover and my washi chevron wall art.

Chevron Wall art with Washi

I had a stack of empty frames and several empty walls in our spare bedrooms, and for the longest time I've been meaning to put the two together and DO something! Preferably without spending much money.

So in came the washi tape art deco project, and with the latest trend, what else could it be but chevrons?!

First I pulled a bunch of tapes that co-ordinated well together and cut them into 4" strips. Then I pencilled the outline just a little bigger than the aperture of frame mount I was using onto a piece of card stock. I also pencilled a diagonal line to use as a guide to get things going, and then just started taping, leaving just a couple of mm gap between each strip of tape. By having the outline already on the card stock  I know how much of the card I needed to cover with washi, and not to waste too much by taping way outside of the outline. This took around 45 minutes to complete and was an easy, fun and free project. It would also look great for a card don't you think?!

This is #3 out of 10 washi tape projects that I challenged myself to make this year as part of my 2012 manifesto. See my tealights projects here and my quick shelf makeover here.

Washi Tape tea lights

Another ridiculously quick and simple project using Washi Tape! Decorated tealight holders! I love having lots of candles around the place, and so long as I'm 'around' I don't always bother putting tealights into proper holders. But why not at least make them look a little cuter?! Haven't you noticed that washi tape is pretty much the perfect width to cover the edge of the tealight holder?!

Just pick your washi tape, line it up with the top edge of the tea light and wrap around. If there is any excess at the bottom simply fold under.

Voila! Perfectly cute Washi tape tealights!

1 down, 9 to go!

Another item on this years manifesto was to make 10 washi tape projects. It's another one of those trends thats exploded this year, and with heaps of the scrapbooking companies bringing out more and more cute designs it's hard to resist. Most of my tape came direct from Japan (a great Etsy seller with very reasonable prices)

My first project was a little home decorating. I had Chris put up this shelf above the printer, close and accessible to my desk. Nice. Functional. But a little drab!

So I decided to add a little decoration to my shelf!

This took me about 30 seconds...seriously! I just ran a strip of washi tape along the front of the shelf for a bit of added colour and decor. And the great thing about washi tape is that'll peel straight off with no stickiness left behind. So I can change out my shelf colour over and over whenever I want a change!