Let’s say you want to decorate an all-black surface, without damaging it deeply. If engraving and sharpies aren’t within your acceptable option set, I suggest duct-tape and an exact-o knife.
Begin covering your surface with a duct tape canvas. Next, sketch your desired design on some paper (I suggest graph paper) and secure each piece of paper with scotch tape.
Piece by piece, cut rectangles and triangles out from your design. Use the exact-o knife edge to help peel the severed duct tape from the universe set.
Repeat this process for each piece of your design. By segmenting your design, you can stabilize the paper “stencils” with tape more effectively than if you used one huge stencil.
After extracting the desired duct tape to form your pattern, trim the edges of your canvas to finish your decoration.
Happy decorating! This trombone case now complements my trombone’s design.
If you cut and pulled the negative shapes instead of the positive, would figures be adhesive enough to stay?
Depends on the tape, the surface you are decorating, and the design of your decor.
First, I’ll answer your question. Adhesion is dependent on the tape and surface. Using the correct tape and surface, a positive design will initially be almost as adhesive as the negative design.
However, I recommend using negative designs (with Gorilla tape) for fine details and long-term adhesion. This will increase the robustness of your decor.