Super Quick Tutorial: Book Page Tape
June 01, 2011
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:
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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!