Craft Tuesday: How to Print on Tissue Paper

Next week I will be using this method for my craft, so I thought I would spread it out to two weeks and really give you a good idea of HOW to print on tissue paper!

It's simple and shouldn't give you any problems, if you do it correctly. Paper jams with tissue paper (I have heard) can be very bad.

You will need:

• Inkjet printer
• Tissue paper
• Regular printer paper
• Scotch tape
• Scissors

First you have to pick out the picture or image you would like to print, and the size which you will need to print. I chose a picture of my son and printed a 12x12. Since my printer is an ordinary inkjet I could not print a single 12x12 image. Using a photo editing software (I used Photoshop, but a very simple one like Preview will work just as well), I divided my picture into sections using a normal grid pattern. My picture was cropped down to 4 6x6 squares, and I scaled them down to 90% (in the printer options when you click "print") when I printed them so that I could do 2 to a page.

Before being ironed

When you have finished picking and preparing your image, we will need to prepare the tissue paper! The paper I had was a bit wrinkled so I decided to smooth it out with an iron. Simply turn your iron on to a medium setting, place your tissue paper on your ironing surface and cover it with a light cloth. I opted for a thin, clean hand towel.  Iron the tissue paper on one side and then flip it over and iron the other side. This may not get out all the big creases, but it will definitely help your picture print more smoothly.

After being ironed

Next, place your tissue paper glossy side up on a table. The matte side of the tissue paper will be the side that will be exposed and printed on. Lay your paper on the tissue and cut around it leaving a border of at least 1" on all sides. Begin folding these borders over, creating neat creases, and taping the tissue tightly to the printer paper. I used 4-6 small pieces of scotch tape on each side.

After your edges are secured, fold the corners in tape them down completely to prevent paper jams.

Corners taped down

Ta-dah! Your paper is ready to print on! Remove all other paper from your printer and place this paper in so that when it feeds in the image is printed on the tissue paper.

After your image is printed, let the ink dry. Then cut it out while it is still taped onto the printer paper. This makes it MUCH easier to cut evenly without tearing the tissue paper. I only got half of my image done, sadly, as I ran out of scotch tape. But you will see the whole thing in next week's craft!

What to do with these tissue paper images? Next week I will be putting this one on a canvas. You can put them on the inside of mason jars or transfer the image onto a wooden sign. What do you like doing with your tissue paper prints? Share your crafts and be featured on Let's Brag Thursday!