Washi Tape on Gifts

Hi there! Only 12 days to go before Christmas! This week I attended two parties and I'm about to attend to another gathering later today. Anyway, I bought soap as Christmas presents for a party and decided to wrap them with old brown paper bags and dark paper twine for the bow. But before I finished wrapping everything I ran out of twine so I decided to decorate my small gifts with washi tape. You can cut them into smaller pieces to create the shapes that you want. Here's how they turned out:

I made a snowman, a present, and a Christmas tree! Cute, no? The concept of just cutting tape and sticking it on paper is quite easy, but it does take time to finish it. I only did it on three small presents though.

Speaking of washi, my friend Drea has loads and loads of washi tape packed in her storage box and she is the master of making art out of washi tape. You can check it out here!

Hallmark Christmas Sale and Rockwell's Holiday Fair

My friend Allie told me about Hallmark’s Christmas Sale at Brixton Street in Kapitolyo. And since it was just a five minute walk from my place, I checked it out. And good thing I did, because holy hell I went crazy shopping for craft supplies at low prices! 

This was my loot. I bought stuff for myself and also for the craft workshop that Katha Magazine was facilitating that day. (I’ll write about that within the week!)

Want to know what was on sale? Let me show you some of the items that I bought:

Rolls of paper twine for P2.00 each.

Folders and envelopes with printed pattern for P25.00 - 30.00 for a set of 2.

Cute polka dot paper bags from P6.00 to P10.00

Ribbons - I can’t remember the price for this but I’m pretty sure I did not exceed P8.00 a roll.

Bought these scrapbook paper for the craft workshop. The people couldn’t believe it when I got these for P15.00 for a set of 4.

And I also bought these solid colored scrapbook paper for P10.00. It’s basically P1.00 a sheet. Whaaat.

And I bought pretty gift wrapping paper that could pass as wallpaper for P20.00 for 3 sheets.

I expected that all my expenses would sum up to about P500+ but discounts were up to 90% off so my bill turned out to be P387.00 for 41 items. Happy!

The next day, I went to Rockwell’s Holiday Fair. That wasn’t my primary reason for going to Rockwell though, I had to do something for work on a Sunday. I also invited my family to go and start their Christmas shopping.

Anyway, I didn’t have enough money that day because I wasn’t really planning to do shopping. And even though I could just withdraw money from the ATM, I had to control my expenses. Haha! Here’s what I bought:

* A lavender infused pillow that says Reve (which means “dream” in French) and a tiny baby pillow doll from La Pomme. - P200.00, she gave the baby doll to me for free! How nice of her :)
* 20 sheets of beautifully designed wrapping paper sold by Paper Chic Studio - P160.00
* 65% Dark Chocolate made with cacao beans from Davao, from Malagos Chocolate. I’m planning to give this or the ones in can to my officemates as Christmas gifts. - P130.00
* And I bought washi tapes from Hey Kessy and Paper Blush. The washi tapes were at P75.00 each.
* Plus, I got a free post card and press flowers from Hey Kessy!

I spent a lot of stuff this weekend, but that’s okay because it made me so happy! Plus, it’s Christmas time! You gotta prepare your presents this early :)

DIY Party Projects with The Girls' Room

Hi everyone! This is Kit from The Girls' Room posting as a guest for The Pink Doormat. The season of parties is looming near (Noche Buena and New Year's Eve are just two of the many!) and prepping for these becomes more difficult through the years. Whether it be your budget or your creativity that's a little tight, we've got two simple projects that will ease the headache they're causing.

An important element of parties is food, and we Filipinos LOVE food. Ditch the heavy china and go for light, (optionally) disposable cutlery (for starters). They're cheap, unique, and fun to make! A word of caution: you can get addicted making them.

PROJECT NO. 1:
DIPPED SPOONS AND FORKS

What You'll Need:
- flat paintbrush
- transparent tape
- acrylic paint in the color of your choice (I used yellow, cerulean, and white)
- wooden spoons and forks (P50 for 25 pcs) you can find in any supermarket

How to Do It:
1. You can opt to sand your wooden utensils first because the ones you get from the supermarket may not be sanded properly. Also check for chips and other damages caused by packaging. If you're good to go, proceed to step 2.

2. Measure the length of the handle of your utensil and divide it in half (eg. length = 5 inches; 5/2 = 2.5 inches).

3. Using your transparent tape, tape around the middle of the handle as shown in the picture. The bottom half is what you will be painting. The tape will cover the portion that you don't want to paint.

4. Mix your acrylic paint to a color you're happy with and start painting the bottom half of your utensil, front and back. To achieve this Tiffany Blue hue, I mixed 1/4 cerulean with 3/4 white. I left the yellow as is and painted straight from the tube.

PROJECT NO. 2:
WASHI CUPS

What You'll Need
- plastic cups (in any shape, but a funkier shape helps in the overall aesthetic)
- a variety of washi tapes

How to Do It
1. Make sure your cups are clean and ready to be used for drinking. Wash and wipe the outside of your cups.

2. Decorate your cups with washi! You can go all-out on this or you may want to make it simple. It helps to decorate your cups with washi in the same color palette.

3. Pour your drinks and enjoy.

These projects are great for parties of all ages. They perk up the table settings and could serve as conversation starters for those occasions where not everybody's acquainted with everybody. We have two more projects by Cachi up on our blog. Visit us atthegirlsroom.com

Make use of your idle hands and start crafting!
Love,
Kit of The Girls' Room

Photos by Kit Singson
Styling by Tala Singson

Welcome Home Buntings

My sister and her kids just arrived here from Boston and I surprised them with these cute buntings. These are easy to make and you will only need kraft paper, washi tape, and string (I used yarn for this project).

For the letters, you can print your own template on white paper. As you can see, my printer is almost out of ink.  :)

Use washi tape to add color and patterns to your buntings. Lay them side by side on the paper...

And cut out the letters.

With your kraft paper, cut triangles plus about 1 inch allowance at the top. Paste your washi letters on the triangles and then punch two holes at the top. Run the string through the holes. Make sure you arrange your letters so you won't misspell your message.

Hang them above the doorway, or on a wall and surprise your family/friends with your special buntings!

Decorate Your Pencils with Washi Tape

Hi guys. I took a long break from blogging because I was reviewing for my licensure exams. And now that the exams are over, all I have to do is to wait for the results and go on with my life.

I have left over #2 pencils from the exams, five of the six pencils that I bought were not used. Of course I will still be able to use these in the future when I return to work. To make these pencils a little livelier, I decorated them with washi tape.

Bought these rolls of washi tape from Hey Kessy. Some of these are from their new collection.

Just cut a strip of washi tape with the same length as your pencil. Stick it on to the pencil and carefully spread it, making sure that there are no air bubbles left. Do this step twice, as the pencil needs two strips of tape to be completely covered.

Then when you're done, trim the edges and sharpen your pencils.

Tadaaa! Your boring yellow pencils are now bright and colorful.

Here's another shot of the finished product. Look how pretty they are now that they're clad in patterns.

This project is so easy, even kids can do this and use their decorated pencils in school. It's good to be back! I will write more on this blog now that I have enough time for it :)

Washi Tape Birds

Today's project is inspired by Love Mae's fabric wall stickers. I like the idea of using decals as decoration for bedrooms. But instead of fabric, I used washi tape.

First I looked for photos of birds on Google Images and traced them on Illustrator using the pen tool. I'm a newbie at Illustrator and my lines are not yet that great. Took me a couple of hours and a Youtube tutorial to do this. Practice makes perfect!

Download the template here.

I printed them out on a letter sized paper. You can print them on sticker paper if you want to put them on the walls or cabinets.

Then I started laying out the strips of washi tape on the bird. You can be as neat as you want or as messy like what I did:

Trim the tape using a scalpel or cutter. Carefully slice off the excess tape and avoid cutting your paper.

 And then finish the rest of the bird with different washi patterns.

Try out different colors that work for you.

Tada! I placed them on my bedroom wall. Too bad my paper owl family is gone, it would have been nice to see them all on my wall.

Aside from practicing Illustrator, I also tried using Photoshop. I'm just a beginner here but I'm kind of getting used to it :)

Easy DIY Washi Wooden Pegs

Hello again! Today I made washi wooden pegs

I saw these wooden clothespins during one of my unnecessary trips to Daiso after work, and  impulsively bought them.

I have been thinking about making these washi wooden pegs to hold my notes and reminders in the office. It's very easy to make and what you need are: 

wooden pegs, rolls of washi tapes, white glue, a pair of scissors, and some magnet that's soft and easy to cut (or if you have thin strips, then that's fine and you don't have to cut them)

First just stick the washi tape on to your wooden pegs. Trim the excess, and do it on the other side.

After that, cut your magnet into small strips. Apply glue,

And stick your magnet onto the wooden peg. Let it dry for a few minutes.

They are so quick and easy to make, I finished the whole pack of 36 pegs. And of course since it's Christmas season, I will be giving these away as gifts for my friends and family.

Here I made a Japanese Floral bundle:

Here's a Girly Pink bundle:

Here's the Stripes bundle:



And the special prints bundle:

I recently bought the new washi tape designs from HeyKessy, which includes that special winterflake and pyramid patterns.

So once the glue has dried up, you can now put them on your fridge or on your workstation in the office. :)

Yay!