Kids Craft | Bleeding Tissue Paper Wall Art

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Looking for a fun way to get the kids involved in their room décor and want to try a fun new craft? Check out how to use bleeding tissue paper for a hands-on activity that’s sure to engage your little crafters. Find tips and tricks to create bleeding tissue paper process art then expand the concept for endless fun!

When it came time to deciding on a room theme for each of the girls’ bedrooms in the new house, I paid attention to what I knew they already liked or what they mentioned they might want.

Hailey is all into Ariel and mermaids these days so the Under the Sea theme she already had at the last house was going to transfer well to the new room.

Brielle meanwhile is very indecisive if you ever ask her about a favorite anything so when I asked what colors she might want in her new room and she said “all of them” I knew rainbow was the right approach.

We had a long lack of creative crafting experiences earlier this summer due to house staging, closing and moving so after all that settled down I was eager to get back into it with a project they can admire for years to come!

Bleeding tissue paper crafts have been on my to do list with them for a while, especially now that I know they have the hand strength to squeeze a spray bottle.

Basic supplies for this craft:

Bleeding Tissue Paper – you can’t use ordinary tissue paper!
Watercolor Paper – I’m sure you can try other surfaces but this worked best in our tests!
Spray Bottle

To create the process art portion, spray your surface, apply the tissue paper and then spray again to create more bleeding affects.

Wait for it to dry completely (we usually waited overnight if we did it that evening) and check out the beautiful artwork that appears once you brush off all the dried pieces of tissue paper!

We actually had several attempts this craft to get it right, most of which were craft fails on my part. At first we tried this with a canvas but the bleeding effect didn’t take well at all on this surface. (maybe I just had cheap canvases?) The second attempt on watercolor paper went great but I had a craft fail when I tried to use their finished project with vinyl. Spoiler: that didn’t work as the transfer tape took off the top layer of the watercolor paper. Finally they did another attempt and honestly, it came out the best looking anyway!

After they were dry, I took out my cricut and cut designs on glitter paper to fit each room’s theme.

Hailey got her mermaid design to go along with the Under the Sea themed artwork I had previously made for her.

Brielle got a rainbow quote to go along with the rainbow room we are creating for her.

Here are some tips we learned along the way in making these bleeding tissue paper crafts:

Protect your surface. Step one for any kids craft! I would recommend laying down a cheap plastic table cloth as there’s water involved and BLEEDING colors! You wouldn’t want to put this on newspaper then have it bleed through to your table! (and no, I didn’t learn that the hard way haha)
Choose your colors wisely. Not all pieces of tissue paper created strong colors. The light purple, for example, was completely overpowered by the other colors I chose for Hailey’s under the sea theme on her 2nd attempt.
Decide how you want your design before you work. I only say this if you plan on a specific look. Brielle wanted to do rainbow so we cut up her pieces and laid them out in the order she’d want them on the paper. Hailey meanwhile just got a pile and could make her design however she wanted.
Be prepared for stained hands! As they start to put the tissue paper on the surface and they have wet hands, the color may transfer to their hands. Don’t worry as it comes off within a day after a few hand washings.