Layering Washi Tape: How to Overlap Strips Without a Mess

Layering washi tape goes wrong for one main reason: the tape is not opaque. A pale strip laid over a dark one does not hide it; the dark pattern ghosts through and both look muddy. Once you plan around that, overlapping strips becomes predictable.

What follows is the order to stack in, five techniques that use overlap on purpose, and how to keep a layered piece flat instead of thick and curling.

Translucency decides everything

Most washi tape is thin paper, and thin paper lets light through. Hold a strip up to a window and you can usually see your finger behind it. Two things follow from this:

• Whatever is underneath changes the color on top. A pale pink over white paper looks pink; over navy it looks gray-mauve.
• Where two strips cross, the overlap is darker than either strip alone. This can be a flaw or a feature, depending on whether you planned for it.

Opacity varies from roll to roll. Dark solids, metallic foils and heavily inked prints tend to cover well. Pastels, whites and tapes with a lot of unprinted background cover least.

Make a two-minute test strip

Before committing to a card or a page, lay the candidate tapes on scrap paper of the same color as the project. Stick each one down as a short strip, then cross every strip over every other. You will see at once which tapes hide what is beneath them and which combinations turn murky. Keep the scrap; it answers the same question next time.

Stack from wide and pale to slim and bold

The ordering rule is simple:

1. Bottom: the widest and palest tape. It acts as a background and nothing has to show through it.
2. Middle: a medium-width tape with a pattern.
3. Top: the slimmest and boldest tape, such as a dark solid, a strong stripe or a foil.

Each layer should be narrower than the one below, so part of every tape stays visible, and darker or denser, so it covers what it sits on. Reversing the order, pale over dark, is the usual cause of a muddy result. Which rolls belong together is a separate question, and the guide to mixing washi tape colors and patterns deals with choosing a lead, a support and a solid.

Five ways to overlap

Offset stacking

Lay a wide strip, then run a slim strip along one of its long edges so the slim tape sits half on the wide tape and half on the paper, or entirely on the wide tape just inside the edge. The slim strip reads as a trim line. It also seals the edge of the wider tape underneath, which is the edge most likely to lift.

Stepped overlap

Place three strips side by side, each covering about a third of the one before, like shingles. Start with the strip that will be most hidden and finish with the one that should be fully visible. Keep the step the same width each time; a spare offcut of slim tape laid alongside makes a handy spacer to judge it by.

Crossed strips

Strips that cross at right angles produce a darker square at every crossing. With two translucent solids this gives a woven or plaid effect from just two rolls. Lay all the strips in one direction first, burnish them, then add the crossing strips on top.

The tape-on-backing sheet

This turns tape into patterned paper that can be cut into any shape.

1. Take a piece of plain white paper, about the weight of printer paper.
2. Cover it with strips laid edge to edge, each overlapping the last by about 1 mm so no paper shows. Let the ends run off the sheet.
3. Burnish the whole surface, then turn the sheet over and trim the overhanging ends.
4. Draw a shape on the back in pencil. Remember that it will be mirrored on the front.
5. Cut it out with scissors, or with a craft knife on a cutting mat for inside curves, and attach it with a glue stick.

For blade handling and safe trimming, see the methods for cutting washi tape cleanly.

A white base for true color

When a pale tape has to sit on a dark card, kraft paper or another tape, give it a white layer first. Either lay a strip of plain white tape of the same width and put the colored tape directly on top, or stick the colored tape to white paper, cut along its edges and glue that down. The second method adds less tackiness at the edges and gives the cleanest color.

Stop at three layers

Every layer adds thickness, and the adhesive of an upper strip grips the slick face of the tape below less firmly than it grips paper. Past three layers, edges begin to lift and a card front can bow. In a notebook, thick stacks also make the page stiff and the book fan open.

If a design seems to need a fourth layer, look for a way to place tapes side by side instead of on top of each other, or move part of the design onto a backing sheet, which is still only one layer of tape on paper.

Burnish between layers

Press each layer down fully before adding the next. Rub along the strip with a fingernail, a bone folder or the back of a spoon, paying most attention to the long edges. A layer that is not burnished traps air, and the strip on top bridges the bubble and wrinkles.

Apply every strip without tension. Stretched tape shrinks back over the next day, and on a layered piece it drags the strips above along with it.

Where layering pays off

• Card panels: a wide pale band, a patterned band and a slim dark line make a finished front with three strips.
• Page frames: a slim tape set inside or over a wider one gives a double line. The article on framing a page with tape borders covers the corner work.
• Tags and labels: a white base under a pale strip keeps it readable on kraft card.
• Collage backgrounds: torn pieces of pale tape overlapped at random, with one bold strip across the top to anchor them.