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Washi Tape: Everyone’s Favorite Japanese Crafting Material

 

What is Washi Tape?

Think of washi tape as the cuter Japanese cousin of masking tape; meaning that it’s a colorful, decorative adhesive tape with a myriad of craft uses. The true magic of washi tape lies in its versatility, though. Firstly, it’s easy to tear by hand. But it also adheres to nearly any surface, and peels off without leaving a sticky residue. It also pairs beautifully with washi paper and Japanese stationery.

Traditionally made from natural fibers such as mulberry and hemp, washi tape is available in countless patterns and colors; from the purely practical to the ornamental and even humorous. This makes it indispensable for all sorts of art and craft endeavors.

In this brief guide we explain how to use washi tape in your craft projects, and even your daily life, before highlighting a number of our favorite products from revered Japanese craft marketplace Minne.com.

 

How To Use Washi Tape

Not only adorable, washi tape is also incredibly practical. In this section we'll share a variety of creative ways of using washi tape.

BuJos and Scrapbooks

  • Use washi tape in planners, scrapbooks, and bullet journals (BuJos). It’s great for indexing, dividing sections, creating borders, covering mistakes, and adding tabs. It's also perfect for taping in mementos like tickets, flyers, postcards, and photos. You can even write entries on separate sheets of paper – Japanese stationery and washi paper, for example – and paste these into your journal with tape later.
  • Some people go all-out with decorating their journals using washi tape, turning them into miniature works of art in themselves (see the next section for ideas).

Collage and Illustration

  • Art Projects: Add complexity and professionalism to collages and illustrations. Use washi tape to create textures and patterns on drawings of people, fashion, buildings, and more. For example, to add realistic clothing to your drawings, place washi tape over the clothes, trim the tape to shape with a scalpel, and peel off the excess.

Snail-Mail, Parcels, and Packages

  • Gift Wrapping: Washi tape is a fun alternative to ribbons and bows on parcels and presents. Use it to decorate envelopes and packages, even creating attractive address boxes.

Labeling

  • Containers: Washi tape makes excellent labels for jars and containers. Good quality tape stays on even in the dishwasher.
  • Cables etc: Use different washi tape designs to clearly identify your power cables and gadgets at school or work. Plus, a brightly colored tape can help you keep track of small and easy-to-lose items like keys and earbuds.

Decorating, Covering, Sealing

  • Personalization: Decorate boring items like boxes, containers, or even picture frames with washi tape. It's also great for covering annoying logos and branding.
  • Use washi tape to seal bottles of hand-sanitizer, cosmetics, shampoo etc. against leaks when traveling.

Attaching

  • Hanging: As pretty as washi tape is, it also has its practical uses. You can use it to hang banners or notices and mark picture placement without damaging walls. And because washi tape can be removed without leaving a residue or tearing paper, you can easily take down the notices afterward.

Masking

  • Painting: For clean edges and borders, washi tape is often better than painter's tape, peeling off without leaving marks.
This superb video explains how to use washi tape in art, collage, and illustration.

 

Explore Unique Washi Tape Designs from Minne.com

Minne is one of Japan’s most trusted sources for crafts and handmade gifts. The platform also offers a dizzying array of Japanese craft-making materials; among them, countless designs of washi tape. Here are a few that caught our eye, grouped together by theme.

 

Animals

Cat and mail-themed tape; great for letters and parcels.

Capybara-themed washi tape is not a niche we were previously aware of. However, on the evidence of Capybara-chan, we are very glad we found it. Too cute!

From the packaging, you might be forgiven for thinking that this is actually an obscure brand of organic French cheese. But no, it’s cow-themed tape, of course.

Introducing the “cat god of thunder and the frog god of wind.” No, we’d never heard of them before either, but we think they make for a pretty cool design all the same. 

Irresistible Schnauzer puppy-dawg washi stickers. The perfect envelope seals!

 

Food

Extra-wide washi tape featuring mochi, matcha and all your favorite Japanese snacks 

This fun tape comes with a sumptuous spread of savory bites including ​​grilled mackerel, rolled omelet, fried chicken, and oden

Although the most obvious use for a plum onigiri-filling tape is on onigiri packaging, these cute little washi stickers are just too good to be hogged by onigiri-makers. Fun in journals and scrapbooks, or add them to presents, parcels, or letters!

 

Plants and Flowers

This seller offers a nice range of floral tape in a variety of different designs and colors; ideal for journals, collages, and especially for fashion illustrations.

This tape displays a variety of tree species, in various seasons of the year. There’s even a Christmas tree

 

Add some zest to your BuJo with this luxurious bergamot-pattern tape. Cleverly designed to seamlessly repeat when doubled up, this tape is as suited to creating extensive backgrounds as it is for making stylish borders.

 

More floral washi tape; but this time individual flowers and bunches, rather than repeat patterns.

 

Places

This delightful set of tapes features painterly travel locations such as snow scenes, sakura cherry blossom, autumn leaves, and a tropical beach.

Classical temple architecture adorns this delightful tape

 

Seasonal and Festive

Halloween-themed washi tape right here: starring pumpkins, bats, ghouls, and all that spooky stuff!

A parade of snowmen makes this tape ideally suited for wrapping winter holiday gifts.

 

Traditional Japanese

This traditional-themed tape displays illustrations of four famous Japanese deities taken from the Kitora Tomb in Nara prefecture – where, incidentally, this tape was also produced.

And in case you thought that raiding tombs for washi tape inspo was a pretty odd thing to do, these great little designs were also inspired by ancient Japanese tomb motifs! Surprisingly cool.

Whether or not you’re a wrestling fan, you’ve got to admit that this Sumo-themed washi tape is downright brilliant. The seal on all our mail from this day forward! 

 

Plain and Geometric

Bold, graphic grids on these triple-packs. Great basic materials for illustration and collage.

 

The design of this washi tape may have been inspired by the pattern on the backs of Okinawan frogs (true fact!), but it’s actually highly versatile. Equally suitable for journaling and collage as it is for gift-wrapping!

Sometimes with tape designs it seems that the more outlandish they are, the better. That’s all very well, but sooner or later you will inevitably find that you need some simple solid-color tape, too. These 6-packs of Basic Tape in a variety of beautiful colors do exactly as advertised. 

This lovely rainbow-striped washi tape is guaranteed to brighten up anything you stick it to!

Fashion illustrators and collage artists will love these plaid-pattern multipacks. Great for decorating journals, notebooks, and gift wrapping too. In fact pretty much everything really!

 

Random and Bizarre

A starry skyscape decorates this elegant washi tape. Great for adding a nocturnal feel to journal and scrapbook entries, for covering jars and containers, or for adding instant dreamy backgrounds to illustrations and other artwork.

As a bread-bear hybrid (of course, what else), Kuma Pan could as easily have gone in either the Food or Animal sections. As it is, though, we’ll put this quirky little tape design here.

Another eccentric design that straddles two categories, this adorable emperor penguin's lunch-themed washi tape is actually one of our favorites. Who knew?

There’s a definite theme developing here; this time it’s cats and chestnuts. Of course it is!

Make a strong impression in your art with some Impressionism-themed tape. This is a bumper-pack containing various tapes in different dimensions, all featuring Claude Monet-style patterns. The simpler textured designs in particular would be great for collage and illustration.

Fancy yourself as a bit of a retro-styler? Got a thing for ‘60s chic? What better way to seal your snail-mail than with these hip chicks sporting groovy vintage ‘dos!

More vintage fun. But this time from a different decade: ‘70s and ‘80s analog synthesizers!

Clearly Japanese washi tape designers are not held back by many restraints. But in a genre positively brimming with the fun, unusual, and downright bizarre, this moon-landing-inspired tape has got to be a contender for the most kooky and original concept. A great step for mankind!

 

Conclusion

As we’ve just seen, washi tape is a super versatile crafting material; you can jazz up your journals, wrap gifts with flair, label containers, personalize everyday items, and elevate your art. Interested in experimenting with washi tape? Why not get inspired to add a creative touch to your next craft project by checking out the amazing selection of tape available from Minne.com!

Unfortunately it’s not possible for buyers outside of Japan to purchase directly from Minne.com. Luckily though, by signing up for a free ZenMarket account, we can order items for you, and then ship them to your home anywhere in the world. Easy!

For a handy tutorial explaining the simple process of ordering from Minne via Zenmarket, check out this post. Then get on over to the dedicated Minne ZenMarket store, and grab yourself some gorilla-cheese-sandwich-themed washi tape – or whatever designs take your fancy!

 

 

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Article| 22/01/2025 | ZenLinkMinnestationeryCrafts

 

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