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I got some long-awaited happy mail on Saturday. Back in May I won an amazing National Scrapbooking Day giveaway at The Crafting Chicks. It was an amazing – 72! – rolls of washi tape, and a display box to put it in from The Plaid Barn. I have been SO excited to get my hot little hands on this box, and the washi inside.

Seriously? Don’t you love it? I mean, get up close and personal with that picture and tell me you aren’t CRAZY excited to see what was in my package. So was I. So you can imagine how hard it was for me to wait 2 months for it. Yeah, I won the box back on May 9th, and it arrived on Saturday, July 14th. I don’t want to dwell a lot on this, but I did want to note, because I feel that there has been some confusion:

1 – I originally gave The Plaid Barn the wrong address. I answered their email from my iPad and it autocorrected my street and city names.

2 – It took me 2 weeks to notice that and get them the correct address.

3 – That wasn’t really an issue, since as of June 3rd they were waiting for a shipment of washi tape to finish out my box and it hadn’t shipped yet. I was also told that I would receive a tracking number from their marketing dept. when it shipped.

4 – As of June 26th, they finally had the designs, and it was supposed to ship out ‘tomorrow’.

5 – On July 9th, I emailed support again, since I still hadn’t received a tracking number or box.

6 – 48 hours later, I still hadn’t heard anything from them, so I posted on their facebook wall about the issue. Their response was to copy and paste the link to the tracking information (which showed the box having shipped on the 8th of July, not the 27th of June) in a comment on that post.

Now, I need to say, their customer support person, Chris, was courteous and prompt up until my last email – even going to far as to contact me from their vacation to tell me they would check on my box and the shipping address for it when they got home – which I never recieved a response to. I am grateful that their support got back to me right away (all but the last time) when I emailed with concerns – even though I hadn’t spent a dime on the thing I was emailing them about. I appreciate the professionalism there. But, their follow-through at the very end left a bit to be desired.

As far as the box itself… well, waiting an hour to unbox it so I could get the kids down for a nap and take it outside into good light for pictures was really hard.

I mean, don’t-eat-that-last-cookie-even-though-it’s-your-favorite-because-you’re-learning-willpower hard. (Anybody else struggle with that? It’s okay, you can raise your hands, nobody can see you but your computer screen.)

But I made it.

I love the care of the packaging. The extra closure for the display tray. In fact, I’m still storing my display tray in the box right now, because I don’t have its rightful place in my scrap corner cleaned out yet.

And then I opened it.

Good Lord, isn’t that gorgeous? I love the colors, and the designs, and… I just love washi tape. Guys, I think there may be something wrong with me. My husband does too. I keep trying to tell him that this is as useful to me and what I do as his super-expensive Surface Pro is to his work, but he doesn’t believe me (probably because that’s not true). But don’t you just kind of want to reach into the computer and pick through it?

Me too. So I’m going to leave you alone with some close-ups for a moment. Take all the time you like. I’ll be back in a bit.

…I know, right?!

I think I had more fun photographing this box than anything else I did Saturday. Well, okay, re-organizing it does top that a little bit. But we’ll get there in a second. BY THE WAY – In case you’re wondering, there is a comprehensive list at the end of this post with links to places on the internet where you can buy each specific roll of tape in Instant Washi Collection – so if you see a few that you just can’t live without, don’t worry.

Before I move on to my final organization photos, I wanted to note a couple things that might be of interest for anyone who is looking at purchasing the Instant Washi Collection the next time The Plaid Barn offers it.

First is that I had 6 duplicate rolls in my box.

Second is that one of the rolls shipped to me was damaged, and looked like it had been used prior to shipping. (see the tear line, as opposed to the clean break on the duplicate roll.)

Third – which may or may not bother people, but I thought I should include it just in case – the washi rolls are not a standard size/length – like was shown in the google image preview. One is on a larger cardboard tube, and some are much shorter than other tapes in the box.

Now, all that said… The last time The Plaid Barn offered the Instant Washi Collection deal was January 2013 – and I’m sure they had a gigantic and varied stock of washi tapes. There are 72 rolls in the box, and the cheapest non-sale price I found for any of these rolls was $2. So even with a couple duplicates and a little damage, their $129 price tag is still a pretty awesome deal (consider, shipping from separate locations as opposed to from one location, as well). And you get their awesome laser-cut display box.

Now, this is definitely a display box. Don’t get it wet, don’t put it where it can be easily knocked from heights, don’t step on it, etc. It’s beautiful, but it’s not incredibly sturdy. But for what is essentially a freebie, it’s a neat little addition that definitely adds polish to their deal.

Would I pay $129 dollars for this Washi Box? Absolutely, if I had $129 to give on the day the deal came up, I totally would. And I am incredibly lucky that I won this box, because I hardly ever have that kind of money at a pop. 🙂

What about you all? Have you ever ordered from The Plaid Barn? What did you get? Leave me a comment and let me know – I would love to hear about your experience!

Look out for Part 2 of this post tomorrow (Wednesday), where I will talk about my washi organization, and show you my completed Washi Box, with some of my new tapes mixed in with some tapes from my stash. 🙂

3 Responses to “Sunshine and a Rainbow of Washi Tape”

I just have to say it, the photos of the washi are just scrumptious! I too, waving hand in air, am a washi addict! Look forward to part 2! By the way, lucky you for the win!! I’ve bought from Plain Barn, washi as a matter of fact, other then slow on getting the product out, I was absolutely and totally pleased! 🙂

Thanks! I feel like we should start a support group or something. Or… maybe not. I’m not sure I WANT to stop buying washi. LOL!
I’m glad to hear you had a good experience, too. Do you have pics of your box or washi anywhere? I would love to see!

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[…] upon this post and you DON’T have any of this extremely versatile crafting tool, let me point you towards part one of this post. At the bottom you’ll find a list of 70-some beautifully designed tapes, and where to find […]