14 Days of Love - Day 2... Red, White & Black Chess Decor

My little helper Cupid has been scouring the globe for fantastic lovey dove posts to share with you.

Today Cupid asked me to share a post on "Red, White & Black Chess Decor"

perfect for a valentine's party or to decorate your mantle for the month of February

This is my first ever craft project that I used wash tape on. I have been dying to make these and so I set some time aside yesterday and tackled this project. These are the perfect table or food area display for a valentine's party. Also the color theme usually is black, red and white. 

Supplies needed for this project:

• wood chess pieces (I purchased mine from oh my crafts)
• washi tape
• paint
• paint brush
• masking tape
• exacto knife or scissors (much easier with exacto knife)

I started off by painted the edges black. (see pictures below)

Because I was sloppy I also got black on the front and back of the piece and ended up having to also paint the front and back black. If you are careful during this step you can eliminate the masking tape all together.

This photo shows you why I had to use masking tape. Because the block is black the wash tape isn't as clear and crisp like it should be. the below photo shows how the top part of the piece does not have masking tape underneath and the bottom part does.

With this particular chevron washi tape there are 2 different looks you can get from this just by the way you place the next piece. the top part shows what it would look like if you continued the chevron pattern all the way up. the bottom shows how by moving the design over a little you will end up with a row of diamonds in between the chevron rows. I choose the diamond look.

     

This next photo shows the steps I took to cover the front and back of the pieces . 

Step 1: (Top Right) Cover entire piece with rows of masking tape.

Step 2: (Left) Apply rows of washi tape making sure you match up the dots, stripes, etc. 

Step 3: (Bottom Right) using your exacto knife, hold the overlapping tape with your left hand                     and slowly a sharp blade and a up and down motion, cut around the edges of the piece.

When I applied the striped washi tape. I decided to do it from top to bottom instead of side to side.

I started applying the tape to the middle first and the moved outward. When laying down the stripes I overlapped the last red stripe onto the first red stripe of the previous row.

These turned out so good, you can always add ribbon around the middle, darken the edges,  or even bling it up more.

Happy Love Month

Carrie