Watercolored Tissue Paper

When my artist friend Neva heard that my daughter loved to paint, she suggested we try a technique with which she has been experimenting.  It involves tissue paper, watercolors, YES! glue and watercolor paper.

The first step is to watercolor on the tissue paper.  My daughter had decided ahead of time that she was going to create a sunset for one painting and the other would be a tree in the fall - so she chose colors accordingly.

After the tissue paper was completely dry, she tore it into multiple size/shape pieces.

Next, we mixed a little bit of the YES! glue with water.  YES! glue is a paste and for this project we needed it to be more of the consistency of Elmer's Glue.

Then, my daughter used a sponge brush to add a thin coat of the glue to her watercolor paper.  Only work in a small area at a time.

Once she had a coat of glue on the upper portion of her paper, she randomly placed her torn tissue paper on the glue.  She brushed the edges with her sponge brush to make sure all of the edges would adhere and lightly dabbed over the top.

She continued with this process..........

Until she had it just how she wanted it.  Don't worry if the watercolor bleeds from the tissue paper to the watercolor paper.  You'll see why in the next step.

Now comes the real fun!  Use watercolors to fill in and create a masterpiece!

The finished work of art!

My friend Neva made a huge piece of art using this technique then had notecards made of it.  Beautiful!

We will definitely use this technique for other projects (notecards, school projects, Christmas gifts, gift wrap, and so on).  The possibilities and experiments are endless!

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."  -Albert Einstein