How To Paint With Tissue Paper
Painting with tissue paper can be an absolute blast for adults and kids alike. There is a certain level of mystery. It is so fun when the bleeding tissue paper finally dries, and you can pull the paper off to see what happened.
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There are a few ways you can paint with tissue paper. Our favorite tissue paper technique uses bleeding tissue paper because the colors mix together.
Since Valentine’s Day was right around the corner, we decided to show you how painting with bleeding tissue paper can work with even the simplest of shapes (a heart, of course).
What is bleeding tissue paper?
The bleeding refers to the color not being permanent. When it gets wet, you will see the colors come off (so be careful). The dye is water-soluble, making it the perfect art material to use for backgrounds and fun artwork.
Recommended Supplies
- We normally purchase the Spectra bleeding tissue as it comes in a variety of bright colors and works well for all sorts of bleeding tissue paper crafts.
- Water
- Paintbrush
- Heavy drawing paper, cardstock, or watercolor paper
How do you know if you have bleeding tissue paper?
- Make sure the package says bleeding on it.
- If you don’t have the package, you could get a small piece of tissue paper wet. If the color comes off on your fingers, then you have bleeding tissue paper. If it doesn’t, you have regular tissue paper.
How To Paint With Tissue Paper
Step 1: Wet The Surface
Step 2: Add Tissue Paper
Keep the tissue paper flat and brush water on top. Fully saturate the tissue.
If you are working on heavy paper or watercolor paper, you can let the tissue paper fully dry.
Step 3: Let Dry
If you are working on a canvas with bleeding tissue paper, you may find it is best to pull the tissue paper off after about an hour.
Other Tissue Paper Painting Designs
- Criss-cross longer tissue paper strips
- Use white oil pastel or white crayon design before adding paper
- Add gold or silver paint markers for extra details once your painting is dry.
- You can also collage with a glue-and-water mixture as we did for this Monet-inspired background.
Use A Spray Bottle
Use a spray bottle to pre-wet the whole surface of your paper. Lay squares or rip tissue paper pieces on the already wet surface. Then use a spray bottle again to really get those colors to bleed.
How to “Paint” with Regular Tissue Paper (non-bleeding)
This is more of a collage technique but can have a similar feel. You can see how children used this tissue paper collage technique to make colorful word art collages and how we added decoupaged tissue paper to clay.
Step 1: Rip or cut the paper into shapes.
Step 2: Mix ½ water and ½ glue.
Step 3: Paint that mixture on top of the tissue paper shapes.
Step 4: Layer it on top of one shape at a time. Let dry and see that you have almost created a brand-new piece of paper. You will not pull the paper off as you do when you are painting with bleeding tissue paper.
The back of this repurposed entertainment center turned dress-up clothes storage was even created by painting tissue paper and sealing with Mod Podge.
Technique FAQs
No, the colors won’t blend together. To get the dye to come off the tissue paper, make sure you use bleeding tissue paper. You can collage with regular tissue paper to get a fun effect.
Water or anything mixed with water (like glue and water) will make tissue paper bleed to get a unique, colorful artwork that kids love.
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More Fun Painting Ideas
- Fun Word Art Project For Kids: another great project using bleeding tissue paper.
- Easy Flower Painting
- Paper Plate Flower Craft
And most importantly, enjoy the process of painting with tissue paper.
Do you like this art project? Please give us a 5-STAR review below ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and have fun being creative with your family.
Painting With Bleeding Tissue Paper
Equipment
- Paint Brush
- Spray Bottle With Water Optional
- Water
Supplies
- Spectra Bleeding Tissue Paper
- 80 lb. Drawing Paper
- Optional: Watercolor Paper
Instructions
- Pre-wet the paper with a brush or spray bottle. The wetter your paper is, the more the colors will bleed.
- Rip the pieces into various shapes and place them on the white paper or watercolor paper.
- Use a brush and paint water over each piece. You want your tissue paper to be pretty wet so the colors start to “bleed” or soak into the paper.
- Overlap the next color slightly and paint water on top of the shapes.
- Let dry.
- Pull the tissue paper off to reveal your awesome painted paper.
- If you have too much white, as we did, just put another layer of tissue paper on top and let it work its magic.
Notes
- Any white paper may work, but you will get the best results with watercolor paper (it doesn’t have to be the most expensive).
- Use tissue paper colors you know will mix well, such as colors next to each other on the color wheel.