PET Tape vs Washi Tape: What’s the Difference?

If you love decorating journals, planners, or scrapbook pages, you’ve probably come across both PET tape and washi tape. They can look similar at first glance, but they create quite different effects on the page.

Washi tape has a softer, paper-like look that works beautifully for borders, headers, layering, and everyday journal decoration. PET tape uses a transparent film base, which makes detailed illustrations and layered decorative elements stand out more clearly.

Neither one is simply “better.” The best choice depends on the kind of journal spread you want to create.

What Is Washi Tape?

Washi tape is a decorative paper-style tape often used in journaling, planners, scrapbooking, letters, and other paper crafts.

Its softer appearance makes it easy to blend into a journal page without making the decoration feel too heavy. It works especially well when you want to add color, create a border, separate sections, or introduce a small pattern around your writing.

Common ways to use washi tape include:

• framing the edge of a journal page

• creating headers and section dividers

• decorating around photos or memo notes

• adding small color accents

• layering with stickers

• building simple themed spreads

Because washi tape often comes in repeating patterns, even a small piece can add visual structure without taking attention away from your writing.

If you like botanical designs, for example, LUMIYEAR’s Floral Scenery Botanical Washi Tape can be used to create floral borders and soft decorative sections in a journal.

What Is PET Tape?

PET tape uses a transparent film base rather than a paper-like base.

The clear background makes it especially useful for detailed illustrations because the design can appear to sit directly on the journal page instead of inside a visible strip of paper.

This makes PET tape a good choice for spreads where the decorative artwork itself is meant to become part of the composition.

You might use PET tape for:

• detailed floral or illustrated accents

• layered journal collages

• decorating around photographs

• creating focal points on a page

• building themed journal spreads

• adding transparent decorative details over other paper elements

For example, the Flower Vine Story Glitter PET Tape uses a transparent PET base with botanical designs, making it easy to add decorative details without covering the page underneath.

PET Tape vs Washi Tape: Key Differences

The easiest way to understand the difference is to think about the role each material plays on the page.

Feature	Washi Tape	PET Tape
Overall look	Soft and paper-like	Clear and transparent
Visual effect	Blends naturally into the page	Decorative artwork stands out
Great for	Borders, headers and simple layering	Detailed illustrations and focal elements
Journaling style	Subtle, structured and easy to layer	More decorative and illustration-focused
Best use	Building the base of a spread	Adding detailed finishing elements

In practice, many journal spreads use both.

Washi tape can create the structure of a page, while PET tape adds larger decorative details on top.

Which Is Better for Journaling?

For most people, the answer is not one or the other.

It depends on what you want the page to look like.

Choose washi tape when you want:

A softer, more understated journal spread.

Washi tape works especially well for simple borders, headers, dividers, and small areas of color. If you mainly write, plan, or make weekly journal layouts, it can add decoration without making the page feel crowded.

It is also useful when you want several decorative elements to work together rather than having one illustration become the main focus.

Choose PET tape when you want:

More detailed decorative artwork.

The transparent base makes PET tape useful when you want illustrations to blend into the page instead of appearing as a solid strip.

This can work particularly well for floral journaling, collage pages, memory keeping, and decorative spreads where the illustration itself becomes part of the layout.

 

If you’re looking for practical ways to decorate your pages, see our guide on how to use washi tape in a journal for 10 simple ideas.