How to Make Decorative Tape

How to Make DIY Decorative Tape

How to Make DIY Decorative Tape

Who needs washi tape when it’s this easy to make your own decorative tape?

And for bonus DIY points, you can use up your narrowest strips of stash fabric and your most interesting pieces of vintage paper to make these tapes.

This DIY decorative tape project is the quickest and the easiest. All you need is double-sided tape, your favorite paper or fabric, and scissors!

1. Choose your double-sided tape. DIY decorative tape is such an extremely versatile project in large part because double-sided tape comes in a ton of different sizes and strengths. There’s double-sided Scotch tape, double-sided duct tape, and double-sided foam tape for dimensional effects.

Just remember that the fabric and paper that you add to one side of the tape will make up part of the weight that the tape must hold. The decorative tape that my kids used to mark the paths of the Oregon Trail and of our summer road trip on our big wall map in that photo above uses fabric, which is heavier than paper, and it needed to be stronger than decorative tape used in a photo album, for instance.

2. Tape across fabric or paper. Peel off the backing from one side of the double-sided tape, then simply lay it down across the back side of a length of fabric or a piece of paper.

Don’t forget to tape across the back, not the front, of your fabric or paper!

3. Trim the excess. Using a rotary cutter or sharp scissors and steady hand, trim away the excess fabric or paper from the long sides of the tape.

How to Make Decorative Tape

Use this decorative tape exactly as you would any other tape, remembering that the weight of the fabric or paper that it’s already holding is going to reduce its advertised strength.

Store your decorative tape around a bobbin or empty thread spool, securing it with a miniature rubber band.

1 thought on “How to Make Decorative Tape”

  1. Great idea! So simple and cute! Love it! I begged a friend to bring me back the real stuff from Japan, but when I finish with that, I am going straight to trying this! 🙂 Thank you!

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