Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Making Deco Tape with Decorative Napkins

In a recent post, I shared how I used decorative tape to "dress up" regular office-store binder clips.  I alluded to the fact that I had created some decorative tape from napkins, so I thought I would let you know the very simple process for making it. 
Let me emphasize that I did not think this up myself.  I read about it somewhere, but did not take note of the source.  Seems like everyone is coming up with all sorts of ideas for creating low-cost decorative tape! 

For this particular approach, you only need three supplies:
Scissors, decorative napkin, and double-sided tape
 
I purchased the double-sided tape at a rubber stamp show, rather than at a store, so I'm not exactly sure where you can find it.  It unrolls to be sticky on one side, but the adhesive on the other side is covered.  I have used it for my handmade envelopes, so that users can unpeel and seal the envelopes at a later date. 

Step 1:  Unpeel the back layer of a decorative napkin.  You will only be using the decorative half for this project.
Step 2:  Lay the double-sided adhesive, sticky-side down, on the back of the decorative napkin.
Step 3:  Cut the napkin along the lines of the double-sided tape.  You can see one piece of tape that I have already cut to the left of the tape I am currently cutting here.
Here are examples of the decorative tape you will have created:
You are obviously limited:  your tape will be the width of the napkin.  But that is generally plenty long to embellish an envelope, letter, or art journal page. 

To store the tape along with my store-bought decorative tape, I wound it around and clipped it with a tiny little mini-clothespin...adorable and useful!
I'm using the scissors here to give you a sense of the tiny scale of the clothespin.

When you start thinking about decorative napkins for art journal pages and decorative tapes, you'll never walk through a party store in the same frame of mind again!

11 comments:

Janet said...

Thanks for the tutorial, Andria. I love napkins and have a big box full of them. Now I have to try this. I'm off to search for the double sided tape.

uncustomary said...

OH MY GOD this is brilliant, I can't believe I haven't done this yet.

GinaVisione said...

Duh! (That comment is directed towards myself!). This is fantastic! I've been using double-sided tape for all kinds of things for years, but not this :). Thanks!!

eli said...

Andria, this is great! there are so many beautiful napkins out there waiting! ;D

aprilmariecole.blogspot.com said...

Andria...
you always come up with the neatest, crafty art!! :]
Thank you for sharing... these look fantastic. ~xx

Bree said...

This is awesome! Great idea of making "napkin tapes"! Not mentioning that it can help you save $$$!

laurie said...

i actually have some beautiful napkins i want to try this with! thanks for showing us how.

i received your halloween goodies in the mail. i sent something your way in response but i wanted to let you know that your envelope arrived and was much appreciated!!!

Karenann Young said...

Have to find some double stick tape now!!! No reason why I can't do this with thin paper also! Thanks for the tip!!!

Karen Isaacson said...

cool!!!! If I wasn't at work I'd be raiding my napkin stash right now.

Parabolic Muse said...

I can't stand it!!

What I mean is... thank you to whomever gave you this idea and also to you, whom hath sharedeth it with useth. YAYAY!!!

I didn't know what I was going to do this weekend, but now I know!

VivJM said...

You are Queen of the Decorate Tape :-)