Washi Tape

This past weekend, Forrest, his two friends, and I found ourselves in Santa Monica hungry for lunch. Forrest (who, as a true asian, is obsessed with all things asian) suggested we go to Mitsuwa for ramen. I can't speak for the food, but that place has an awesome selection of weird Japanese products. I took my time browsing groceries (strange KitKat flavors anyone?), the book/video store, and other miscellany. One of the things that intrigued me was the array of colorful tape. It's called washi tape. Have you guys ever heard of it?

I hadn't. Upon further inspection (via a google search), I realized I may be living under a rock. Everyone and their mother has been doing cool things with this miracle of a tape. This is just a tiny sampling:
- light-switch plates can be not white and not tacky (who knew?)
- cute card-making and cheap gift-wrapping
- prettying up your keyboard
- making your boring pencils look like designer pencils
- if I had notebooks and/or a datebook, I'd totally put washi tape all over that shit
- noncommittal wall-decorating
- fun for kids!
- personalizing straws (obviously)

I'm definitely jumping on this removable tape bandwagon (if only to funkify my kitchen pencils). Want to get your washi tape on also? Don't want to trek to a Japanese market in Santa Monica? Neither do I. Here are the places that sell it: amazon, etsy, amelia.

(photos via etsy, minted, and etsy again)