How to make a colourful masking tape greetings card

Happiness is making things, especially if it involves colour. Here at The Colour File, we’ve been lusting after MT Masking Tape’s spectrum of coloured tapes for a while so imagine how thrilled we were to be sent a fabulous batch to experiment with.

Here’s how to make masking-tape greetings cards. Super-simple – and super-fun…

What you’ll need

Plain postcards or greetings cards (e.g blank A6 folded cards from Paperchase)
Coloured masking-tape (MT Masking Tape, available online at Stone Gift)
Scissors (ruler and pencil optional)

Time it takes

About 30 minutes

Look at those colours…

Decide on your colour theme…or not…

You may be working with a colour theme or you might be going with the flow.

My second-in-command and I decided to go with the flow and see where our design noses would lead us.

Using a mixture of solid and opaque colours can add to the depth and texture of your picture so think about what effect you might want and choose accordingly.

Start cutting

There are no rules to cutting the tape – long, short, anything seems to work.

The great thing about masking-tape is that it is tacky rather than sticky so you can keep lifting it to move it to another part of your picture.

It also means that if you are ‘weaving’ with it, you can lift the vertical ‘warp’ strips up (see warp strips in the pic below) to place the ‘weft’ strips underneath.

Don’t worry about making the strips slightly longer than the card – you can either trim them at the end or even fold them under to give a covered edge (great if you are planning to frame your card).

Don’t worry if the tape is slightly longer than the card.

Don’t be afraid to experiment

You may have decided upon a colour theme or even exactly where the strips are going to go, but each time I thought I’d got it how I wanted it, I forced myself to put in a pattern or colour that challenged me.

Personally, I think this is how you get unexpected and interesting results. Here’s a picture of my second-in-command doing just that (see below).

Pushing out the boundaries…
Masking-tape is so easy to work with

Try weaving the tape…or not…

It can be a little tricky as you have to constantly lift the warp to weave through the weft, but you don’t have to be a perfectionist here.

The strips can just be laid straight over the top.

The effect is particularly good if the overlaid strips are opaque (see picture below, where I wove some of them and overlaid others).

Woven tape (and a few overlaid for good measure)

The finishing touches

Once you’ve finished taping, either trim the edges or fold them under (trimming works better if you want clean edges, for example on a greetings card that you’re going to be writing inside of, while folding produces a good effect for pieces that are to be framed).

My second-in-command put his in a frame (see below). I think mine may end up as a card. When’s your birthday again?…

The finished articles
Framed and already in situ. Fab, huh?
My first attempt

Conclusion

This is a really quick and satisfying colour project that’s great for grown-ups, kids and grown-up kids!

I often find I want to do something creative before bedtime and this is the perfect short project.

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