Tissue Paper Art Experiments for Kids (sketchbook scientists!)
- 12 hours ago
- 7 min read
Let’s Experiment with Tissue Paper in Our Sketchbooks
Greetings, Sketchbook Scientists.
Are you ready to put another kids' art supply under the creative microscope?
Get ready, because today's subject will be:
TISSUE PAPER!
Tissue paper may seem simple, but this colorful little material has a lot going on. It is thin, transparent, absorbent, and incredibly sensitive to water and light. In other words, it is a fantastic art supply to investigate.
I made the sketchbook spread you see in this post to explore what tissue paper can do. I layered colors, tested different adhesives, added water, drew on top, and even used packing tape to turn tissue paper into a tiny stained glass window.
Some of my ideas worked exactly as expected.
Others surprised me!
That’s the whole point.
One of the biggest benefits of making art is something we almost never talk about: art builds critical thinking skills.
When kids experiment with art supplies, they learn to ask questions, test ideas, observe carefully, and use what they discover to solve creative problems. That is serious brain work. It just happens to be colorful and fun.
I swear, with art supply experiments, kids can feel the magic of discovery crackling in their fingers.
You can copy my experiments exactly, or use them as inspiration to invent your own.
Let’s crack open our sketchbooks and get started!
Why Artists Experiment with Their Materials
One of the most important ideas I teach my students is this:
Art supplies are tools.
Every art material has its own personality.
Some supplies blend beautifully. Some resist water. Some wrinkle. Some glow when light shines through them.
Great artists do not just use materials. We study them.
We tinker.
We test.
We make predictions.
We change variables.
We record what we notice.
The purpose of studying our art materials is to gain the skills to bring out the magic within us. That is, after all, the whole point of art!
Also, if we’re lucky, we discover a few materials that feel like absolute wands in our hands.
Suggested Supplies
The goal of this project is discovery, so use whatever you have on hand. The only thing you absolutely need is tissue paper!
Tissue Paper
Tissue paper in several colors
Sketchbook
Any sketchbook or blank paper
Drawing Supplies
Crayola washable markers
Crayons
Paint sticks (I love Ooly Chunkies)
Adhesives and Sealants
Glue stick
School glue
Glitter glue
Mod Podge
Clear gesso
Packing tape
Scotch tape
Other Tools
Scissors
Paintbrush
Spray bottle with water
Pencil and eraser
Sunny window or flashlight
Let’s Experiment with Tissue Paper in Our Sketchbooks
Tissue Paper Experiment Prompts
Here are the exact experiments I tried in my sketchbook. You can follow along step by step, or use these prompts to invent experiments of your own.
The goal is not to make a perfect piece of art.
The goal is to figure out what tissue paper can do.
As we go, we’ll be asking questions, testing ideas, and recording what we notice. That’s exactly how artists and scientists build knowledge.
Experiment 1: How Can We Combine Tissue Paper to Make New Colors?
Layer up three pieces of tissue paper sort of like a Venn Diagram, so the colors overlap one another.
Make sure:
Each color overlaps with every other color.
You create one spot where all three colors overlap.
Number all the new colors you made.
This is a great chance to name the new colors you’ve created! Maybe I’ll make like a scientist and name one after myself.
“Emma’s Ocean Blue” sounds nice!
Another interesting finding is that layering tissue paper impacts the value of the colors. “Value” is basically how light or dark a color is.
When tissue paper colors are layered on top of one another, the value becomes darker.
The colors also seem to become less vibrant when they are layered. That tells us that we could use layered tissue paper to make some lovely neutral colors.
Wow! That’s some pretty advanced color theory we just explored from layering little scraps of paper.
Experiment 2: Can We Apply Our Favorite Art Supplies to Tissue Paper Like We Would Other Kinds of Paper?
I was really curious to see how my favorite coloring supplies would work on top of tissue paper.
My favorite kids’ coloring supplies are:
Crayola Jumbo Crayons
Crayola Washable Markers
Ooly Chunkies
Make sure to apply them separately from one another so you can observe the effects of each one individually.
I expected the tissue paper to rip since it is so thin (my hypothesis!), but in fact it worked just fine.
What are your favorite art supplies? What did they do?
Experiment 3: How Does Tissue Paper Mix with Our Favorite Art Supplies When We Add Water?
Let’s use another strip of tissue paper to put down our favorite art supplies.
What do they do when we add a gentle spritz of water?
It looks like the Crayola markers and Chunkies created a watercolor effect.
Neat-o! We can use that in future art projects.
The crayon did not bleed at all.
We might have expected this since crayons are made of wax, and wax resists water. Crayons tend to seal the paper, whereas ink is absorbed into it.
How interesting!
Experiment 4: Can We Layer Our Favorite Art Supplies on Top of Each Other on Tissue Paper?
Water isn’t the only challenge paper needs to stand up to.
It also needs to be able to hold layers of ink, wax, paint, and so on.
Let’s test our tissue paper to see if it can handle layers of art supplies.
Try layering marker and crayon on top of the other supplies.
Surprisingly, the tissue paper seems to hold up to two layers of art supplies pretty well.
Maybe in a future experiment we can really push that ability.
Experiment 5: How Do Adhesives and Sealants Work with Tissue Paper?
For this experiment, let’s fix our tissue paper to the sketchbook page.
I tested a few of my favorite adhesives and sealants:
Elmer’s School Glue
Elmer’s Glitter Glue
Clear Mod Podge
Liquitex Clear Gesso
Each different art supply is a variable!
I made sure to write next to each piece of tissue paper which art supply I was using. That way I will remember my outcomes in the future.
Which adhesive gives your favorite result?
Experiment 6: Tissue Paper and LIGHT as an Art Supply
Artists LOVE transparent art supplies because they give us the chance to work with LIGHT.
Our tissue paper is certainly translucent!
First, let’s try color mixing. We did that before by layering different colored papers in our sketchbook, but what happens when we use LIGHT as a variable?
We can hold our tissue paper up to the window and see that it makes a huge difference.
It would be so fun to make projects with tissue paper using light as an art supply!
Experiment 7: Let’s Make a Tissue Paper Stained Glass Strip
Hmmmm... but how do we capture our observations in our sketchbook?
We could just write them down, but as artists, we can probably come up with something even more exciting.
Let’s use packing tape to make a strip of tissue paper stained glass!
First, apply strips of tissue paper to a piece of packing tape.
Make sure:
The different colors overlap one another.
You create one spot where they all overlap.
Seal it by adding another piece of packing tape to the back.
Look how beautiful it looks when we hold our experiment strip up to the window!
Next, let’s make a pocket in our sketchbooks by taping down a long strip of paper.
We can slide our stained glass experiment strip right into it.
Experiment 8: What Happens When We Layer Tissue Paper with Adhesives or Sealant?
We’ve gotten amazing results layering tissue paper with light and tape.
We’ve also seen that tissue paper responds really well to being painted down with adhesives.
The tissue paper almost turns into another painting medium!
Let’s see what happens when we layer tissue paper with adhesives.
We can also try coloring on the page with an Ooly Chunkie, then layering more tissue paper on top of that.
Look at all these beautiful new colors and values we made!
Water and Light: The Ultimate Sneak Attack Art Supplies
One of the great lessons we can get from tissue paper projects is understanding two of the ultimate sneak attack art supplies:
Light and Water.
Honestly, calling these two vital elements “sneak attack art supplies” is slightly disrespectful. Light and water, along with earth, air, and fire, are some of humanity’s most foundational art supplies. They are at play in virtually every kind of art.
Kinda hard to enjoy a work of art without light to see it, amiright?!
But light and water are such basic parts of art-making and everyday life that kids often take them for granted.
Sometimes things are invisible because they are so small. Other times they are invisible because they are so BIG.
I’m always trying to help kids see the invisible world around them because, as artists, they need this vision to make truly powerful creative work.
Experimenting with tissue paper is a wonderful way to get kids “seeing” water and light. Tissue paper is just so darned sensitive to both of these elements!
Why This Project Builds Critical Thinking Skills
This project asks children to:
Ask questions
Make predictions
Test variables
Observe carefully
Record results
Apply discoveries to future projects
That is exactly how artists, scientists, engineers, and inventors work.
In other words, this humble sketchbook activity is helping kids become powerful creative thinkers.
And they’re doing it with tissue paper and a bunch of kids' art supplies. Critical thinking leads to big creativity!
More Tissue Paper Art Projects for Kids
If you loved this tissue paper art project, you might love these as well:
Once you've created them all, you can invent your own art projects. Or heck, why not do that right now?
I can't wait to see what you create next!
FAQs
What are tissue paper art experiments for kids?
Tissue paper art experiments for kids are open-ended sketchbook activities where children test how tissue paper reacts to water, light, glue, and other art supplies.
How does this tissue paper art experiment build critical thinking skills?
Kids ask questions, make predictions, test variables, and record what they notice. This strengthens critical thinking while making art.
What art supplies work best with tissue paper?
Crayola Washable Markers, Crayola Jumbo Crayons, Ooly Chunkies, glue, Mod Podge, and packing tape all create interesting effects.
What happens when tissue paper gets wet?
Some tissue paper bleeds color and creates watercolor-like effects, while other types hold their color. That’s part of the fun of experimenting.
Why is tissue paper a good STEAM art activity?
Tissue paper is sensitive to water and light, making it a great material for exploring art, science, color theory, and observation.
Do kids need a sketchbook for this tissue paper art project?
A sketchbook is ideal because children can record their experiments and return to their discoveries later, but any paper will work.
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