This Earth Day craft is a great rainy day activity or just get the watering can out. It seems to have done nothing but rain for months and months here in North Yorkshire and I decided to embrace the weather and produce this process art bleeding tissue paper rain art for Earth Day.
No rain, no problem. Just fill a small spray bottle with water or a watering can and make your own rain!
Bleeding Tissue Paper Rain Art for Earth Day
Materials
- Bleeding art tissue paper – this is key, normal tissue paper doesn’t leave any colour. (UK Link/US Link)
- Watercolour paper (UK Link/US Link)
- Rubber gloves
- Plate for a template
- Scissors
- Pencil
Watch the Video: How to make a popsicle stick catapult
How to make Bleeding Tissue Paper Rain Art
We wanted to make an earth to celebrate Earth Day so we kept our colour palate simple with just green and blue tissue paper. We ripped them up into small pieces.
Place them onto your paper. If they keep blowing away then give your paper a spritz of water. If you are going to move the tissue paper with wet hands then it will colour your fingers, so gloves might be a good idea. We still have blue and green fingers two days later!
Place on a tray and place in the rain. No rain, well don’t worry you can use a watering can or a spray bottle of water.
Leave until soaking wet. Remove excess water by blotting with kitchen roll. and allow to dry completely.
Once dry the tissue paper just brushes off leaving the paper with the colour on.
We wanted our paper to be round like the earth so we drew around a paper plate as a template and then cut out the earth.
Talking points
I really loved this process art as it meant that we could talk about why it is important to look after the earth and converse water.
We discussed how much rain falls in the UK and how as a family we collect it in our water butts to water our garden and also that you can measure water with a rain catcher.
We had lots of fun with this process art, it was really great to take it outside. I now want to do this on a huge scale with lots of bright coloured tissue paper.
If you like this then check out our other Earth Day and Recycled Crafts
- Bleeding Tissue Paper Rain Art for Earth Day
- 10 Recycled playsets
- DIY Recycled Plastic Bottle Poppy Craft
- Recycled Toilet Roll Easter Bunny Stamp
- Recycled Art Projects
- Plastic Bottle Wind Spiral Mobile
- Earth Day Crafts For Kids Using Recycled Materials
What a clever idea. Something to keep in mind for the next holidays (when it will almost certainly rain!)
Oh my word I LOVE this! I have never heard of bleeding tissue paper but I am going to have to go and buy some now, WB will love it… he is completely obsessed with countries of the world at the moment and would adore making his own version of the world, especially if it involves water! I can’t believe we’re in April already, I hadn’t even started planning anything for Earth Day, but this will be fab for starting off conversations about the earth.
What a gorgeous art project. Can’t believe the resemblance to Planet Earth achiieved with the brilliant blue/ green mix of tissue paper.
What a lovely looking piece! And aptly a great craft for rainy days!!
What a fantastic idea!!! It’s forecast rain here for the next few days and I have HEAPS of tissue paper so I think we might just have to give it a go. Thank you x
Wow, what a fantastic technique! The end results are stunning. A great craft for Earth Day
This is so cute, what a great idea!
We used to do similar things with tissue paper and water in school. 🙂 It’s a long time ago now, and I also remember colouring our blonde hair with tissue paper for a temporary strand of colour 🙂
Mookieslife
This looks amazing! Bugs is obsessed with the earth at the moment so I think we will have a go at making this at the weekend x
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I didn’t know you could get different types of tissue paper, will have to try this it looks great x
That looks brilliant and what a brilliant idea for a rainy day
What a lovely project, it’s so cute!
I never knew there was a special type of tissue paper. I have tried to do activities like this before with disappointing results — all because I was using the wrong type of tissue paper. I learn something new every day!
This, by the way, is gorgeous!