Don't tape. Use a really good tapered 2&1/2" brush for cutting in at the ceiling/wall joint. Dip the brush about 1/2" into the paint and wipe one side clean. Draw the brush along the joint with the paint loaded side to the wall and the clean side against the ceiling. That technique is actually faster than taping/painting/removing tape.

Another tip is to use a painter's edge guide several types

This is more labor intensive, since the guide has to be cleaned frequently to prevent paint bleeding over to the other side of the blade.

Don't use Blue, use Painter’s Green tape.

how old is the house? If it's from the 50's-60's it could be that the original paint is calcimine paint and the tape reactivated the paint loosening it and causing it to peel.

I would expect that paint, both new or old, should adhere to the painted surface if properly prepared (washed/degreased) prior to application of the paint.

IMHO, cutting a straight, clean, edge without taping or some sort of masking off is tough for the amateur painter. (at least it is for me). It can be done but the skilled folks seem to minimize the frustration of us less adept people. LOL

HandyMac As sdello said, I'm probably not going to have the skill to pain the edges without assistance. I could try and use a trim guard but how is that going to help when the edges aren't straight. My house, no house, has trim that is perfectly straight.

You can cut it in if I can. Just go slowly and have a damp shop rag draped on the ladder for the mistakes. :)

Cutting in without tape seems to be agonizingly slow. At least I thought so several years ago when I was taught how.

So, when repainting my own place, I tried an experiment. I had three rooms to paint, two bedrooms and a living room. I taped the living room, which was basically the same painting area as the two bedrooms, but did not tape the bedrooms.

I bought a tapered Purdy 2&1/2" brush with man made bristles(then the price was about $25). I then cut in the three rooms, feathering the cut in paint down on the walls(to eliminate lines when rolling on the wall paint).

I timed how long it took to do the two untaped bedrooms versus taping/painting/tape removal/touch up living room.

The time for the bedrooms was almost an hour less and the result looked much better(no tape paint creep).

It still felt faster to tape, because the actual paint application time on a taped room was faster, but the overall time was not.

And, learning the technique of using the brush with paint only on one side is not as difficult as it seems---not easy to make a mistake when there is no paint on the ceiling side of the brush to do an Oops!

Actually, if you want to use tape still, the correct product is the delicate tape, which is the yellow frogtape. The adhesive is not as strong and less likely to damage surfaces.

Cutting in is always good, but sometimes not applicable. If you want to ensure none gets on some stained trim for example. Or if you need a perfectly straight line.

yellow frogtape. or 3m's orange core delicate tape, it's a little cheaper

Thanks Vith & Christopher. I'll try the delicate frog tape first. I have a section of ceiling where the blue tape removed it before. I'll try and test spot in the same place, so I don't have two areas of peeled ceiling if it doesn't work!