Shamrock Bleeding Tissue Paper Art for St. Patrick's Day

A simple bleeding tissue paper art project for St. Patrick's Day.

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When it comes to crafts and art projects with toddlers, I always seem to reach for tissue paper. It's versatile, great for fine motor skills, and is especially awesome for toddlers when paired with contact paper.

And it's something that we always have on hand. After all, I recycle and reuse (ahem...hoard) tissue paper and gift bags from birthdays, Christmases, etc.

Sometimes we craft with tissue paper to make suncatchers.

Or we use tissue paper to try some process art like we did with this shamrock bleeding tissue paper art.

Easy Shamrock Craft: What You'll Need for this Bleeding Tissue Paper Art Project

Here's what you'll need for this simple shamrock process art:

• Green tissue paper, ripped or cut into small pieces (all from my recycled tissue paper hoard collection)

• Water

• Foam paint brushes

• Large sheet of easel paper

• Permanent marker

Draw a shamrock shape onto the easel paper. Tape the paper to a surface if it has a tendency to roll up or might move around too much. I taped ours to our kitchen floor so that both boys could work on it together.

How to Do the Bleeding Tissue Paper Art Technique

The bleeding art technique goes as follows:

• Paint some water onto the paper

• Place some tissue paper onto the watered areas

• Paint the tissue paper with more water

• Let the finished painting dry completely (ours dried out over night)

• Remove the tissue paper from the painting

The idea is to cover the tissue paper completely so that the color bleeds out onto the paper.

J dumped out all the remaining water onto the art project, so it got pretty wet, but here's how it looked after the "painting" stage:

The Finished Shamrock Craft

As I mentioned, I left the "painting" to dry over night.  Then it was time to remove the tissue paper.

When all of the tissue paper was removed, we were left with some beautiful colors on the shamrock.

Then I cut out the final product. J wanted to hang it on the mirror in our dining room. So we did, as seen below.

I love how simple this craft was and the results are so cool. Both boys could easily participate in this craft, which is another bonus.

Other St. Patrick's Day Activities You'll Love

Easy Shamrock Suncatcher Craft

St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin

More St. Patrick's Day Activities & Crafts for Kids