Tissue Paper Bleeding Hot Air Balloons

This tissue paper bleeding art activity is ideal if you want to include babies in the process, but you don't want to be dealing with the mess!

Tissue paper bleeding artwork.

What you need:
- 3 pieces A4 white card

- coloured card or paper for the hot air balloon baskets
- small photo of each child
- black marker
- tissue paper (we used pre-cut squares from Dollar Tree)
- water spray bottle
- baby wipe
- Ziploc bag
- glue
- scissors

The set up.

How it works:

I got a few things ready before inviting the kids in. Firstly I cut out the white card balloons (make sure baby's is small enough to fit inside the Ziploc). I also cut around their pictures so that it was just their torso and head showing. The final part to prep was cutting out the baskets after they had chosen their preferred colours.

For Big Bro: 
We gave his balloon a gentle squirt of water before starting. Then he placed the tissue paper squares in a design of his choice so that they covered the entire white balloon. If they keep moving as your little one works you can give them a gentle squirt of water so that they stick in place.

Decorating his balloon with tissue paper.

The next stage was definitely my son's favourite part! He got to use the spray bottle to cover his balloon in water. My son got pretty excited and ended up creating a swimming pool for the tissue paper- try to avoid too much water or else the card won't hold up too well! Leave the balloon to dry for a few hours.

Spraying on the water.

For Baby Sis:
I wanted to make sure that my 11 month old also got to make her own masterpiece so I adapted the activity. I gave her balloon a little squirt of water and big bro and I covered it in tissue paper squares for her. 

Getting baby sis' balloon ready.

I carefully lay the baby wipe over the top, folding the edges around the balloon, and placed it in the Ziploc bag. I sealed it and gave it to my daughter to explore. She enjoyed the sensation of squishing the cold baby wipe which helped the tissue paper to bleed. Don't worry if baby picks up the bag and crumples it, it won't ruin the picture.

Take the balloon out of the bag, remove the wipe carefully and then leave to dry for a few hours with big bro's.

Leave the balloons to dry with tissue paper still attached.

Once the balloons appear dry, carefully peel off the tissue paper squares. You should see lovely bold colours left on the balloon!

I then simply stuck the basket, photo, and balloon onto a piece of A4 white card, and drew on the black ropes using marker. I was really pleased with how these turned out so we framed them.

Proud little artists!

I love that despite the 3.5 yrs age gap, both kids produced their own artwork, and we were able to all do the activity together.