9 Back to School Supplies to Personalize with Washi Masking Tape

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Disclosure: This post was originally sponsored by Walmart in 2014. It has since been updated as of August 2020.

How can you refresh last year’s school supplies for your kids (or office supplies for yourself)? Can you give your newly purchased supplies a little personalization? Absolutely! A little Washi tape is all you need.

We are in our second week of homeschool and we are starting to get the hang of a daily schedule.

One of my favorite aspects of Back to School are the supplies. New notebooks, pencils, and pens are all very exciting. While we do purchase some new supplies at Walmart, some of our supplies are from last year. Old supplies can be given new life and used for a second year.

If you are like me, you love color and being crafty. When it comes to my office supplies I’m the same way, I love color and so do my kids. I think having bright, bold splashes of color in our school supplies make us a bit happier throughout the day.

While I am a bit obsessed with chalkboard paint, I think I may have found a new love….washi tape.

Have you heard of it? Washi Tape is basically a printed masking tape that originated in Japan. In the States, the washi tape craze is quickly catching on.

One can personalize just about anything with washi tape. One example of what can be personalized with washi masking tape is school or office supplies.

Do you love matching, color-coordinated school supplies?

This craft is super simple and with the help of an adult, kids can get involved personalizing their own school supplies.

How fun would it be to have your own uniquely personalized school supplies?

At the time of writing this post (2014), Walmart carried two different types of Washi tape.

I first picked up a beautiful black and white polkadot pattern washi tape from Duck Brand. This tape is more like the traditional Japanese style washi tape.

The other washi tape, more like masking tape, that I found was by Scotch. Scotch Expressions Masking Tape came in a few different solid colors as well as patterns.

When picking out washi tape to personalize something always mix and match patterns and colors to show off your personality. See through patterns of washi tape is perfect for clear surfaces or when you want to be able to see letters through the tape.

Once I found the different patterns and colors of washi masking tape I liked, I then picked up a few new supplies that I wanted to personalize as well as grabbed some of our supplies from last year that I wanted to give a new look to for this year.

Decorating school supplies with washi tape is as easy as peel and stick. However there are a few other supplies that one might need to make using washi tape a bit easier like an X-Acto Knife, Scissors, and a protective cutting surface.

Nine School Supplies to Personalize with Washi Tape

• Clipboards
• Pens, Pencils, Markers
• Ruler
• Plain Phone Case
• Notebooks
• Paperclips
• Old Glass Jar
• Folders
• Binders

How to personalize 9 different school supplies using just Washi tape

First up a cell phone cover (1) . Most kids nowadays, especially the older ones, have some sort of tech gadget with them. I wanted to show how it is easy to personalize the protective cases that keep their precious gadgets safe using just washi masking tape. Each piece of tape is slayed out differently in various directions and length. I also cut the ends differently so that each tape piece wasn’t just a blunt cut. Another option would be to use decorative scissors to cut the ends of your tape.

Next, I took different folders (2), I layed them out on a flat cutting surface and criss-crossed washi masking tape in a random pattern then with an X-Acto knife I traced around the perimeter of the folder cutting off the excess tape stuck to my cutting mat.

For a notebook (3), I just simply folded the tape around to the other side.

Personalize Old School Supplies so They Feel Like New!

I then took an old binder (4) from last year, I wrapped the tape around horizontally from the front to the back overlapping the washi masking tape slightly to give it an updated look.

I took an old glass jar (5) and wrapped a few different patterns of washi tape across the middle to use as a pencil/pen holder.

The clear ruler (6) I placed the washi tape on the back side so that just a slight pattern would show through but not prevent the user from reading the numbers of measurement.

For the pens (7) I wrapped the washi tape all the way around horizontally and some I wrapped vertically. One can mix and match the washi tape as the wrap them around the pens and pencils. I also took the pencils and created flags by wrapping the washi tape around the top of the pencil and sticking the two ends together and then cutting out a “V” shape at the end.

My personal favorite school supply is the clipboard (8). To personalize it, I took a clear clipboard and staggered different colors and patterns of washi tape going up from the bottom and down from the top on either side.

Lastly, I created little bookmarks using paper clips (9). I simply folded the washi tape through the end of the paper clip and stuck the two ends together. Like the flags on our pencils I simply cut a shape at the end of the bookmark so that it wasn’t a blunt cut.

These are just a few ideas on how you can customize and personalize your own back to school supplies.

Whether your supplies are reused from the year before or new but lacking personality, it’s simple to show off your creative style with a little washi tape.

How do you like to personalize your supplies?

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I was compensated for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. My experience may differ from your own.