I waited 24 hours to peel away the blue tape from the walls and of course the paint peeled off with it! It peeled off in rubbery chunks. Now I have gaps of missing paint on the walls. How do I fix this?

Was it acrylic or oil-based, flat or glossy?

Well, you have 20/20 hindsight now.

When it started to happen, you should have broke the paint edge with a razor blade.

Your going to have to wait for it to thouoghly dry. It might take a week, so that it's sandable without peeling.

I'd use Redipatch, a premixed drywall patching cmpound available at Home Depot. Fill in the unleveled areas. Wait until it drys. ABout 3 hours usually. Sand smooth and re-paint.

It was 100% acrylic latex (Behr paint from Home Depot). Thanks for the responses! I've learned my lesson now... the HARD way!

That's interesting, because when I paint, I don't even mask the walls when it has fresh paint. Use an edge pad and paint he ceiling. If it gets on walls wipe with wet rag.

Then mask the old walls and paint the window trim.

Mask floor and paint the baseboard trim. Wipe with wet rag if it gets on anything it's not supposed to.

Mask the possibly wet baseboard and the window trim. Then paint walls again using an edge pad for the corners and near the ceiling and baseboard.

It seems much easier and faster than painting the trim last.

Keep It is right. At least a week, then sand edges. If you use drywall patch, you still have to sand. Either way, I suggest sanding sponges instead of paper (one of advantages is they're 'cleanable'). And when you repaint, you might want to consider a straight-edge instead of tape <G>

Waiting until it dries thoroughly is good! I'm not sure how good that you want the wall to look. If you want it too look perfect, then you use the type of patching compound that has already been recommended or even a very light spackling compound.

I try never to use the blue tape because the paint will tend to "bleed" through the crinkles in it. Instead, I like to use the kinds of tape that are perfectly flat with no crinkles.

When painting alongside of masking tape of any kind, it's best to be going very lightly in the same direction that the length of the tape is laid. Also, for touch-up, you might want to get some very small artist's brushes for that.