Color Me Crafty - Tissue Paper Mosaic DIY

Ever since I was young I loved having art work to hang on my walls. And yes, I am counting N*SYNC and JTT posters as art.

As I matured I found myself liking actual art work but not liking the costs. It seems as soon as I found the "perfect piece" for the bedroom, bathroom or office it would be hundreds of dollars out of my budget.

D-I-Y to the rescue!

Doing It Yourself is the perfect solution. You can customize the color scheme, size and use less expensive materials to keep your costs low. This is exactly what I did for our bedroom.

Our bedroom is an internal room with no windows so it had to be something kind of light but still pull in the colors from the room. So I came up with a gold and blue two piece Moroccan style design using tissue paper, spray paint and a glue stick.

You'll need:

1 or 2 canvases in any size - or you can use a cardboard box or piece of plywood

spray paint (1-2 cans depending on the size of your canvas / cardboard / plywood)

printer paper (2 sheets - for your stencil)

tissue paper (3-10 full size sheets depending on the size of your "tile" and canvas)

glue stick (or spray adhesive)

Procedure:

Spray your canvases with the spray paint. The best method is to go in a diagonal line back and forth across the surface. Apply one even coat and let it dry before going back for a second or to touch up any light areas.

While the canvases are drying completely create your tile stencil. If you are going for a symmetrical look use the old "snowflake" trick and fold your piece of paper in 4ths and draw your shape and cut. At the very least fold your paper in half so that each side is symmetrical.

Fold tissue paper into squares or rectangles, trace the stencil on the top piece and cut out carefully. If you notice that the tissue paper is slipping and your cutting unevenly, try a smaller stack of paper. You should be able to do 6-10 at a time.

Decide on your pattern. I chose a chevron style with the two colors having the lighter one be more prominent. I laid it all out to make sure I had enough tiles to fill both canvases. 

Get gluing! Tissue paper, if you remember from grade school, is sensitive so I suggest starting near the middle of the tile and gently applying glue to the edge. You can apply the glue on a scratch sheet of paper to avoid excess glue getting onto the canvas. If you rip the tissue paper try to apply it anyways, it'll add a bit of character to some of the tiles. Unless you have a ton of extras... then toss it! 

Let the canvases and tissue paper dry for an hour or so and then go back and see if there are any corners that didn't get enough glue and touch it up. You may find using a toothpick and kind of rolling it on easier instead of peeling up the tiles and trying to apply glue directly. 

Let it all dry. Decide if you want to see the raw edges of the canvas or cover it with ribbon or washi tape or trim your tiles so they don't show on the edge. 

Hang it up and enjoy!