FAUX VINTAGE TAPE
Grunge Rules, OK!
I am following Crafty by Toni, and Sevenplaza with Margareth from the Netherlands on YouTube, and love their grungey mixed media and mass makes. A lot of people lately have been reproducing the look of old Sellotape which you often find mending the pages of old books and papers. With age, it goes blotchy and yellow. Many people use normal Sellotape and stain it with alcohol inks, and you then store it on waxed paper ready for use, but recently I’ve seen both Toni and Margareth using a different method which is a lot more versatile, and I just had to give it a try. It has the great advantage of being super-easy to store, and you can make it any size you want.
Instead of using Sellotape, the idea is to use clear book-covering film, also known as contact paper. It comes with its own waxed backing which you peel off to reveal the sticky surface. You can make whole sheets of the faux tape, and you can stamp on it, too.
My set-up
I had to tape it down super-well because coming off a roll, it kept rolling up!
Materials and equipment
I recently got these new alcohol inks (they came in a set) because the only brown one I had was Burro Brown and not the right shade for this. My favourite is definitely Caramel for this, but I used a mixture. You put a few drops of the ink onto the felt pad which is attached to the dauber with Velcro, and stamp away with it, smooshing and swirling and doing whatever comes naturally! A lot of the vintage tape has directional markings on it so I’ve deliberately done some parallel strokes with the inks.
It looks a fine old mess but the messier the better! After applying the ink with the blending tool, I spattered it with rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) to get the gorgeous markings. The spray makes a mottled effect.
Storage and use
When I removed the masking tape from the edges, the contact paper rolled up all on its own! You can store it like this – no need for sticking down strips on waxed paper etc. When you want some, you just cut some off. The backing paper of the contact paper has a grid printed on it so you can cut it straight.
Stamping
I tried a bit of stamping on it but my Distress Archival ink (Black Soot) wasn’t intense enough. I have subsequently bought myself a Versafine Clair black ink pad which everybody recommends for intensity of colour and also great for detail. I have used a bit of my not-so-successful printing on a project already and it looks fine, but subtle. You can also use an Alcohol Lift ink pad with stamps – this clear stuff will lift the alcohol ink off the shiny surface, and you can then immediately use the stamp to transfer it to normal paper, giving a really different effect from normal ink. Not having the Alcohol Lift pad, I tried it with alcohol but it was not a success. I have an Alcohol Lift ink pad on order. The result, when you apply the faux tape to your page, is a transparent image which will reveal whatever is underneath – it looks great on light coloured or white paper. I’ll post about this when I’ve got the equipment and had a chance to try it.
A useful addition to the Grunge Department
This faux vintage tape really adds something to a project. I have nearly finished my second tissue box folio in a grungey style, and have used bits of the tape, and I am super-pleased with the result.
Margareth has made some digitals of her faux tape which you can download and print – you can print onto transparent sticky label paper and use it in the way described above, if you don’t want to go to the trouble of messing about with alcohol inks. I am happy to do this, though, because it’s FUN!
