Okay, so I meant to post about these suncatchers before Easter since some of them are sort of Easter-y, but I guess it's still relevant since it's mostly about how to use washi tape for suncatchers.
Washi tape (at least the kind from Discount School Supply; can someone confirm if regular Japanese washi tape is the same?) is very thin and somewhat transparent and so works well for suncatchers in theory since it looks beautiful with the sun shining through.
We tried several different suncatcher methods but I'm not sure we've hit on the ideal one for washi tape. They all have their merits, though, and I thought I'd share our experiments with you.
Here goes...
First, we used the washi tape on contact paper. Daphne added small pieces (I tore them and lined them up along the edge of the table for her) to her contact paper along with colored tissue paper and marker drawings.
I used the washi tape for Easter egg suncatchers, much the same way we have used lace and ribbon in previous Easter egg suncatchers. I added tissue paper to one and made one with just the tape.
Maia was having too much fun using crumpled colored tissue paper for her Easter egg suncatchers and didn't join in the washi tape experiment.
Here are our finished suncatchers hanging in a sunny window. I loved how the washi tape looked with the sun shining through it, but thought it was a bit silly to use sticky tape on top of sticky contact paper.
So, to see if we could avoid the redundancy, we kept exploring options...
Next we tried the washi tape directly on the window.
Maia and Daphne were equally enthusiastic about this activity, with Daphne putting up a random design of tape pieces (that Maia tore off for her) and Maia creating a scene with grass, sky, sun, and a dog.
The window proved to be a fun place to use the tape for artistic purposes, but it's effectiveness as a suncatcher was lost a bit (especially with Maia's scene) because of the three feet of space between the line of grass and the line of sky. So while I'd like to do this again with the kids, I wanted to try something different for suncatchers.
By the way, the tape pulls off from the window very easily. However, I didn't leave it on for more than a day. If left on in a sunny window over time, the tape may be harder to remove. (Although rubbing alcohol or a razor blade can get stuck tape off glass.)
Next, we tried the washi tape on freezer bags mostly just as a way to contain the tape in a smaller area.
This actually worked fairly well, although I wouldn't say hanging freezer bags in the window makes for the most elegant of suncatchers.
Of the three methods we tried, I think the contact paper worked the best, but it still feels redundant. I love the idea of washi tape suncatchers, though, and am going to keep trying (perhaps plastic container lids or small acrylic box frames...).
Do you have any ideas for what might work well with the tape? I'd love to hear!
