Inspired By... Teippitarha

It's again the 10th of the month and time for the "Inspired by" creation! But what is Inspired by? Every month awesome Marsha and I choose a subject to be inspired by. It can be for example an idea (link), a product (link), a poem (link), a movie (link) or a book (link). Or anything! Then we make something inspired by that theme or a piece of art and share it with you and each other on the 10th of the month. You can browse the past "Inspired By" posts from here (link).

Hiya! This time we chose to be inspired by Teippitarha aka Tape Garden (link). It's a Finnish online and mortar shop with a specialization to washi tapes and other paper craft supplies. I first got to know the shop when they had "only" washi tapes on their selection so I chose to follow that route in my make. Nowadays the shop also has a lovely selection of stickers and other embellishments, anything you require for you planner needs! 

At this point I think I need to make clear that this is not a bought post. I've known the Gardeners for a while now and have done several samples to them. I've received materials for these samples but I've also ordered tapes, embellishments, paper bags and paper straws from there. There's shops that sell washi tapes but I've not seen any other in Finland with as good selection than Tape Garden. 

I have to admit, I was puzzled at first with this Inspired By like so many times. If there's a subject I feel really inspired, I'm left with too many ideas, to many routes. So I needed to edit my choices. I've even kept workshops connected with this wonderful tape so I started from that route. Soon I started to concentrate what I love about the tape and then it hit me. What makes washi tape unique in my book is it's transparency or translucency. I decided to play with that. 

I thought to make a background or a painting, using only washi tape as the medium. Layering different colors so that they would blend and form like a painted surface. I had no idea if my thought would actually work, but I figured out that if I tore the tape in small enough pieces the effect would be like pointillism. 

Here's what I made with the tapes. My idea worked! I started with a text patterned tape on top of a book page and then continued with colored tapes. I started with bigger pieces of tape and tore the tape smaller and smaller on the top layers. Last I added some pieces here and there scattered like splashes.

As you can see I mixed pink, orange and yellow in the make. Each color has several different tapes mixed. Some of them very solid but many had different patterns. 

As I mimicked paint with the colors, I needed something to mimic stamping which I normally add next to the project. For this I used the same scrip tape I used as the first layer and also mixed in a more bold and readable design. I tore these small to resemble haphazard stamping. 

I tried to use as much washi tape as possible in my card so naturally I made the embellishments using tape, too. I twisted the tape to resemble wire which I often use, turned the tape into small roses and leaves and also made some feathers. If you like to know how the feathers are made, I have a really old tutorial about them here (link). Layer everything together and throw in a couple of washi tape arrows and a greeting from another roll, and the project was done.

There it is, my card made almost totally from washi tape! There's only the book page, a piece of white cardstock and a couple of enamel dots added to several rolls of different tapes. 

The roses are something I use in a layout I teach, the feathers I had created a tutorial for, but what I felt the most exhilarated about was the background! I managed to get a painty, media look without any mediums! I will not swap watercolors, mists and gessos for tapes, but it's great to know that they can be used as well. 

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a great day! Oh and now you need to head over to Marsha (link)! I can't wait to see what she has thought to this theme! 

Materials: Teippitarha