The Tackiest Thing Ever

Okay, I just couldn’t help myself with the title.  Only tacky because I’m talking about tape…get it?    I’ve been thinking about Christmas a lot lately; buying gifts, packaging them, mailing them, making cards, and also making cute packaging and craft fair items for Lillie + James.  How can I make my gifts or packaging stand out?  I’m really bad at wrapping gifts and tying cute bows, so when a short-cut comes along that can help me in any way, I try to keep it in mind for future reference!  Enter…decorative tapes.  I know these have been all around the blogs before, but I think that it’s an appropriate time to bring them up, don’t you think?  Especially with new holiday collections coming out!

After seeing a few photos and videos of these decorative tapes in action, I knew I just had to have some. I think the first company that I ran across is called TapeSwell, a unique line of decorative packing tapes. You can easily dress up a plain old brown paper bag gift-wrap job with these (it’s an easy way to recycle – yippee!), or make a conversation starter for when you’re standing in line at the post office to mail the gift! But they’re not just for wrapping packages…you can put the tape on anything you want to dress up; glass, candles, picture frames, lampshades, gift bags, and they even suggest making headbands and necklaces out of the stuff! Check out their “Tacky Ideas” section on their website here! There are tons of great products and patterns, so I’ll shut up and let the pictures do the talking (I especially love their new holiday tapes, though!!).

Okay, I’m piping in again…how great are the containers that they come in?  You can buy the tape as a single roll, or in a combo pack as shown below.  I love those little tins!  Click on the pictures and you’ll be taken to that particular tape on their site.

These are their holiday patterns…

They even carry these adorable Holiday mailing labels on a roll.

And speaking of mailing labels, tape isn’t the only thing that they do.  Check out these Envelope Wraparounds (perfect for sending Christmas cards!).

But don’t let the tape limit you, check out these Tacky Ideas (I like the cards, especially!):

Now check out this video I found, via Daily Grommet.

Cute, right? There is really no limit to how easy it would be to dress up your packages, gifts, envelopes or anything else that you could think of! Prices range from about $7 – $20 depending on the combo that you buy, and I know a lot of people that spend more than that on wrapping paper every year!

I also want to point you over to Happy Tape – a website that distributes Japanese masking tape (Japanese because it’s made out of Japanese washi paper, which is a little different than traditional masking tape that we know and love).

Look how cute the tape looks, dressing up a plain cardboard pastry box.  And they also have ‘new’ holiday patterns in pretty metallics!

This is simply a package wrapped in tape, with a label attached at the seam.  Adorable!  I have to get some of this before the craft fairs come up…

And this is a garland, made with…what else? Tape!  Look at the little fruits on the table with toothpicks and tape flags…perfect for a baby or wedding shower as a placecard!

Single rolls start at $5.50, or you can buy 10-packs for $34.00.  I’d even scour eBay or Etsy to see if I could find some I haven’t heard of, and do a web search for more crafty ideas…you could make some crazy wall art with these for sure!  No painting, only taping, and at $5.50 or less for a roll it would be an easy and cheap project.  Just like I like it!

Happy wrapping, everyone!  xo, L.

{all images via TapeSwell or Happy Tape.}