Art

Washi tapes  

I am quite sure that some of you are wondering now what is the meaning of washi tape and why I am focusing my post on it.

Let me explain.

A little bit of the history to start with

The washi tape phenomenon started in the year 2006 in Japan, and everything happened because a japanese art group asked a tape producer to create some tapes with different designs.Those drawings were made by them, and that is how the washi tape was born.

Although at the beginning only 20 colors were used, nowadays we can find them in multiple colors, shapes, designs etc...

But what is a washi tape exactly?

First of all I want to show a picture of the product itself so you can understand better what I am talking about.

     

Washi tapes with different colors and designs 

If I have to give a short explanation of what is a washi tape, I would say it's a high quality tape made with rice paper.

The word is coming from the japanese language, literally it means japanese paper.

Wa- means japanese

Shi- means paper

This tapes are quite easy to use.You can use them more than once, also you can write on them and create any design you want, you just have to use your imagination (anyway later on I am going to show you some examples)

Are they expensive?

We could say that nowadays considering their recent creation, they are not, but I believe in 2006 when only a few existed, they were difficult to find and they were sold with a much higher price.

Fortunately that is not the case anymore, and now we can find them in almost every country or if not anywhere in the internet.

Actually a few days ago I got my first washi tapes, I bought them online in a store called mermelade store (you can visit their blog on  http://blog.mermelade.com ) and I can not wait to start using them for my own creations. 

Let´s make our own designs with them

As I said the number of designs we can make with them are infinite, but since I guess most of people haven´t used them yet, I want to help you by showing some examples, so by the time you start your own creation, you are completely sure of what you want to make and how you can get there.

Designs for the house

Before and after using the tapes in a bathroom. We can go from a boring one to a fun new look.

Corridor decorated with Washi tapes. In this case they also made flowers to give a different fresh look.

Here they used bright color tapes combined with polka dots.

For a store I think is a great idea.

Small decorations.

We can also create our own small decorations for our house.

This white flower´s base look much better with this colorful decoration and we can really make as many versions as we want to.

In this case they used the tape to replace a photoframe. I think is a great idea so we can really get the frame we want and is a cheaper option.

A boring white wall can become the best place to set our imagination free and draw or write whatever we like.

If you have some photoframe and you are tired of it, you don´t have to get a new one, just use some tape and make your own special one.

This small candles that we can find almost everywhere, look much better as in the picture. 

I am sure your guest will me amazed when they see them.

You can make your own coasters, so each one can have a different look.

I will definitely make some of this

If you really like washi tape

For those who are crazy, or just got crazy about washi tape thanks to my post, you can enjoy them wherever you go.

I chose two ideas.

You can decorate your laptop and make something personal and unique.

Or you can also decorate your phone and enjoy it everywhere you go.

So what do you think about this japanese tapes?

Will you get some and decorate something you have at home?

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