The Book of Masking Tape and MT

Title: The Book of Masking Tape and mt

Pages: 120

Produced by Kamoi Kakoshi Co., Ltd.

We were lucky enough to receive this book as a gift recently and it has been so wonderful reading through it. It includes a foreword written by the 3 ladies who came to the Kamoi Factory and inspired the company to create the 'mt' brand. One of the ladies in particular, Seiko Inomata, has played a big role in writing this book. 

The book comes enclosed in a cardboard sleeve and upon sliding it out, you notice the lovely letterpress title at the front as well as the great binding with blue thread. The book opens nice and flat making it great for dipping in and out of! 

The book is actually dual-language in both Japanese and English, with the translations placed side by side. The beginning introduces the mt brand as well as talking about masking tape in general. 

Afterwards there are a number of different places, artists, creative professionals and other people covered. Apart from introducing them, the book briefly talks about how they use masking tape in their everyday lives. This may be something as simple as wrapping up an order for a customer, to making really pretty artwork. The pictures give some good ideas for using masking tape - great for those of us who have a collection! hehe~

Towards the end there is information on the actual Kamoi Factory with pictures showing the functioning inside the factory. 

The surprises in this book are definitely worth mentioning too - even the first page makes the book feel so special! If you've tried searching for this book before, you may have seen images of pages containing mt samples stuck on neatly. There are several of these pages in the book with many discontinued and difficult to find washi tapes - its probably one of the most popular sections in the book! The pages are even arranged according to different colours. How thoughtful! :)  

Hope you enjoyed this book review & thank you for reading! :)

Fun Videos!

We are really happy to stock some of the most popular brands of masking tape in Japan. If you haven't seen these fun videos from three of them, please check them out below!

Aimez Le Style:

Aimez le style Company info & How to enjoy Washi Tape DIY from Aimez le style on Vimeo.

Masté:

mt:

Introducing Masté

We are pleased to say that we now stock Masté masking tapes from Japan! They are a brand by the popular company, Mark's Inc and come in a very cute, portable format. Many tapes are 35mm in diameter making them easy to store and carry on the go. The tapes are made from washi paper and have good adhesive ability. 

Masté tapes come in many beautiful designs like these city/country inspired ones:

You can also find brilliant bold colours like these from their Visible Neon collection: 

Many more tapes from Masté can be found here ! :)

Happy New Year!

We wish you a wonderful 2015! Hope it is a memorable year with interesting experiences, fun memories along with good company :) 

Frame stickers can be found here :)

MT x Sanrio

These pretty tapes are not so recent, but definitely still worth a mention :) MT and Sanrio have collaborated together to produce 6 different tapes each with familiar characters like Hello Kitty and Little Twin Star. They cannot be purchased outside of Japan but are definitely worth buying if you can travel there! :)

Photos are from MT

DIY Christmas Decorations

These cute pyramids are quick and easy to make. You can use them to put small chocolates and surprise gifts inside, as well as for decorating your tree. Have fun and show us if you make any - We can be found on Instagram @thelovelydesk :) 

Take a square piece of paper and cut it in half. We're using a 15x15cm piece of kraft paper (with pretty polka dots!)

Taking a piece of string that is around 15cm long, tie both ends and stick down at the corners across the length of your rectangle. (The knots will help to prevent slippage!)

Next tape the shortest sides together carefully, edge to edge. You should end up with a cylindrical shape where both ends of the string meet to form a loop.

With the loop to one side, tape down the 2 edges at the top. You should end up with an pocket that has an opening on one end, and the loop on the other.

Choose what to put inside! We've chosen some yummy chocolates :) For this size of paper, 2 chocolates is about right and enough for a sweet treat! You may need to shuffle the goodies around a little to give your pyramid a nice shape.

With our chocolates snug inside the pocket, what's left to do is to seal the flap. We've folded it over and held it in place with some tape for ease of opening. Alternatively you can just seal it up along the edge. 

And you're done! Once the first one is made, the others are much quicker (promise!) 

Deco Paper Books

Whether you wish to wrap beautiful looking presents or to cover an old and beloved book, deco paper books are useful for having around. Here's a little introduction to them using the Scandinavia Style Wrapping Paper Book by Korean brand, 7321 Design. 

There are lots of patterns to choose from - Swedish Dalecarlian wooden horses, Christmas patterns, flowers and much more! 

Here is the first pattern of the book - a pretty sakura cherry blossom design! Simply fold the page and tear. Each sheet opens up to 4 x the size of the page ⤵ 

We'll use this pattern to wrap a Christmas present :) The paper pattern goes pretty well with MT's sakura masking tape! Many of our deco paper books include helpful extras such as colourful matching gift tags. Tags for this book are perforated and made from card - simply pop them out. 

For more deco paper books: Here ~