I have a weakness for stationery. If you know me, you'll know this well. Come to think of it I always have. I was a prolific letter writer as a child and a teen, there's always been a treasured box of special paper and pens in the background. Now I'm older the lure grows ever stronger. I could write reams about the addiction and its finer points. For now, for those of you who have yet to discover it, let me introduce you to Washi tape. The gentleness of masking tape with the beauty of Japanese design.
Its uses are limitless. I've done the wrapping of parcels yes, but did you know you can write on it? Or that it sticks to glass? We've made paper chains with it and gently stuck children's tags to oversized maps with it in workshops. I've used it to tag the pages of diaries and twirl round cardboard tubes to make magical castle turrets which would rival any in the pages of a Grimms fairy tale book. (I have not - yet - stuck it to my keyboard, that's the work of Minifanfan Eng. But I'm not ruling it out...)
And I'll tell you a secret. You can buy it in the UK, you can, from perfectly packaged mail order companies nestled in nice big barns in the country. At perfectly packaged big barn prices. Or, you can buy it where I do, where it suddenly seems more affordable, like you might actually want to use it when it arrives rather than saving it for best (ie never, gathering cobwebs at the back of a drawer). Get your fill from Pretty Tape on Etsy. (Of course you could also go to Japan and buy it there, but for the rest of us...)
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