Homemade Paper Tape ala WOYWW

[If you're looking for this week's Shopping Our Stash challenge, please scroll the the previous post. Thanks!]

As most of my long-time three (maybe four) readers know by now, I love pretty paper. I'm also not allowed to take myself to The Paper Source because I see the walls of pretty paper parent sheets and I become weak in the knees. Case in point: two summers ago I went to The Paper Source to buy 5x7 envelopes and came away with only 4 parent sheets, which was serious restraint on my part.

For the uninitiated, a parent sheet is a large sheet of paper in the neighborhood of 24x30" commonly used to cover books or to make into booklets. A few people I know used them to cover their wedding scrapbooks. When you go into a store like The Paper Source, you are confronted with walls of these pretty papers hung over rails. I am drawn to them like a moth to a flame. I did the math, and I can get about 25 4x5.25" pieces out of one parent sheet. That's a LOT of pretty paper. These mostly live rolled up on a shelf of my closet, forgotten and unloved.

But last night I read Mel's post on 100+ Crafty Ideas for washi and paper tape, and when I came up for air, I had a clue! I would take some of my parent sheets of Japanese papers and make my own paper tape, and I did!!!!

But tonight when I went into The Captain's Quarters to use the stuff I'd made, I was confronted with the reality that is my craft desk, so I decided it was time for another reveal for WOYWW. Taking one for the team, here is my desk as of 6 pm EDT in the USofA:

See that card in the front? Yeah, I'm down to 3x9, which is smaller than my usual 6x6" space. In the center of the desk are the cards I've made over the past few weeks that need to be stamped and bagged for sale. Once I do that, there's plenty of room to work. And yes, the bandana is still on the lamp base -- wanna make something of it?!

Way over on the left of the desk are these strips of pretty paper:

I took 1/2" Sookwang tape and stuck it in strips to the back of several pieces of the papers, then I trimmed the paper to the edges of the tape, giving me all those strips. Here are the cards I made in a few minutes, just playing around:

 This one uses two of my favorite papers -- the two on the right:

I bought them to go with the then-new Poppy Parade card stock. <3 I cut the ends of these instead of tearing them.

This next one is more red than poppy, but I thought it was striking:

 The black and red tapes here are real tape. I tore the ends of these tapes, to be different.

This one, besides being out of focus, uses some really pretty aqua paper with gold woven into it:

The ends here were cut, too, because those gold lines are like mulberry paper and cannot be torn easily. I mounted the strips on a piece of cut-crooked SU Brushed Gold that I tore at the bottom.

So I think there is potential here for me to actually use some of this pretty paper. I also have some 8.5x11" sheets of fabric paper I might cut into strips. Hmm, definite possibilities.

So if you're curious about making your own paper tape, check out Mel's post. She has links to a ton of ideas for making, using and storing your tapes. Have fun! And if you stop by The Paper Source, don't say I didn't warn you.

Thanks for stopping by!