Super Quick Tutorial: Book Page Tape

If you've ever taken a class from me you know that I am a fan of tape.  Well, I was reading Scrapbook Update's Trend Watch column and I saw this super cool digital kit from Designer Digitals:

You can buy it here.

Well, I immediately thought, I wish they had real tape like that.  Then I thought, I can make tape like that!

However, I realized that a traditional tape transfer wouldn't work.  Here's a one minute technique video I did last year on doing a traditional tape transfer:

Why wouldn't it work?  Well because anything that's white would become clear.  And I love the opacity of the tape strips in the digital kit.

So I sat and I thought.

And I figured out just how easy it might be to make book page tape!

You will need:

• Scotch Tape (regular office-supply-sitting-on-your-desk tape)
• A book page
• Your thumb
• 10 seconds of time

STEP ONE: Place tape onto book page.

I have tried this technique with a couple of different book pages and found that vintage book pages seem to do a bit better than modern book pages.  But experiment and see what works for you.

STEP TWO: Rub, rub, rub with your thumb.

STEP THREE: Carefully peel off the tape.

You will pull one layer of the book page with the tape.  Sadly your tape is no longer self-adhesive.  But, you can run it through a Xyron sticker maker machine...

...and end up with semi-opaque self-adhesive book page tape!  Otherwise, just run a tape runner across the back when you're ready to use it. 

I love the semi-transparency of the tape (and you can rip it, which I did to the one of the left side of the photo).

By the way, this layout came together very quickly for me.  I came home to a messy desk piled with stuff:

And I immediately thought, "I bet I can make a layout from what's just lying here."  I printed a photo from my recent sojourn to New England and the whole thing came together in about thirty-five minutes.  Amazingly fast for me.  Let's take a gander at the garbage that went into it:

1. The black cardstock was already sprayed (that's white Mr. Huey from Studio Calico) and dried.  I had actually used it to clean up my stencil from another project.  So that's why it was sitting on my desk.
2. The four half scallop shapes (3 under the photo and 1 at the top) were already punched and cut in half and rejected from another project.  They're not the kind of thing I would save, so it's lucky they made it onto this layout instead of into the trash!
3. The heart and colorful strip were both cut from some painted papers I made last week.  They were just sitting on my desk waiting to be put away.
4. The tape was already made to0.  I had done one piece as an experiment and the other one was the one I made for this tutorial before I left town.  So both pieces were just sitting there begging to be used. 

And the rest of the layout is just paint and pen. A much more fun way to clean up your desk, don't you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

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P.S. The sign-up for Art Journal Every Day in June is coming later today!