Ever since we’ve started slowing down and spending more time at home, I’ve been thinking about ways to create something with the kids that would provide a bit of personalized, fun color to my walls. These stick figure pictures did the trick!
I made them using canvas panel boards and craft tissue paper (it cannot be regular tissue paper because the tissue paper must bleed color when wet).
To begin, I lightly traced fun stick figures onto the canvas boards with pencils. I tried to make them match each kiddo’s personality (and hair!) You also could let the kids design their own figures. I took a poll and everyone preferred for me to do this step.
Next, I let the kids finish creating their figures using permanent marker. My initial pencil outline was just to serve as a template for them to work from because I knew I wanted the figures to be similar in size. They were each free to change their arms, legs, clothing, etc as they saw fit. Once they were finished drawing their figures, we erased the pencil markings.
I cut the tissue paper into different shapes for different kids in hopes of each piece having a slightly different look (I wasn’t quite sure if this would work – but it did!)
Taking a cup of water and a cheap paint brush, we brushed the canvas with water, placed a tissue shape on top and continued with this process until the canvas was as filled as they wanted. Some of the kids overlapped while others did single, even layers. There really is no wrong way to do it! But, the more colors on top, the more color at the end!
Once the canvas was filled with tissue, we painted a layer of water on top and set them aside for about 20 minutes. You don’t want the tissue to completely dry (it will be difficult to remove), just to sit long enough to thoroughly bleed the color. This may vary depending on the amount of water that was used.
After peeling the tissue shapes off the board, we waited overnight for the canvas to fully dry. I chose to mount the boards in inexpensive white frames to dress them up a little.
FYI: One pack of color-bleeding craft tissue paper was more than enough for all 8 of my kids to use. We actually still have quite a bit left over for future art projects!