Tissue Crafts

Jellybean just turned 3, and I was trying to figure out what to do with the MANY sheets of tissue paper that were in her gift bags!  Being a toddler, she LOVES the sound/feel/look of tissue, so many of the papers were wrinkled or ripped.  I was going to recycle them, and then I thought, why not craft with them!  I sat down in front of a good movie and started cutting tissue squares.  I cut and I cut and I cut...  I didn't realize I had so many!!!

When cutting the tissue, there were 3 things that I found to be VERY important:

1.  Never EVER do this in front of a fan.  EVER.  Trust me.
2.  Make sure your fingers aren't sticky or wet.  When crafting with the tissue squares, make sure your fingers aren't gluey at all, or you will find that they gum up very quickly!
3.  Store your tissue squares in a container with a lid.  Otherwise, you will be surprised at how quickly your little artiste can get her hands in there!!  Jellybean LOVED sticking her hands in the bag of squares and rooting around.  She loved the feel and the sound they made, and it was a great learning opportunity to give her new words to use like slippery, sparkly, rustle.

This was the first project we tried was a Stained Glass Shaker

SUPPLIES NEEDED

Dried Beans or Lentils

Cylindrical Container With A Lid (I Used an old Pringles Can)

Masking Tape

Water/Glue Mixture (1/4 water, 3/4 glue)

Old paintbrush

Tissue Squares

1.  Clean out your container, and make sure it's dried really well.

2.  Add your dried beans or lentils.  We put the lid on a couple of times to see how it sounded, and we added a little bit at a time to change the sound.  When Jellybean liked the sound, we used the masking tape to seal the lid to the can.

3.  Using your paint brush, mix together your water and glue.  Then, spread it on to your can.  Add your tissue paper, making sure to layer it so that it hangs over from the top onto the side of the can.  This will give your lid extra staying power, which will make sure it stays on when it gets shaken!!!  Trust me, you don't want those little lentils all over your floor!!

4.  Let your can dry for at least a couple of hours.  You are going to end up doing a couple of layers, and you want to make sure your glue is dry before attempting another layer, as it can lead to a kind of gloopy result.  If you want, you can leave it outside in the sunshine or in front of a fan to speed up the drying process.  

5.  Apply multiple layers of the tissue paper for a more stained-glass look.  We used two layers, and chose darker colors to put over the Pringles guy's face to cover it up more.  We also used this technique on the ingredient list and the barcode.  

This was our finished product!!

Jellybean had a blast making this, and even more fun playing with it!!  Make a whole band!!