Bible Journaling How To: Bleeding Tissue Paper Backgrounds

Wednesday is usually my day to post my weekly recap of my 100 Days of Grace and Gratitude, but I must admit I've gotten a little behind this week--- let's just blame the end of the school year madness for that, shall we? So, while I try to play catch up this week, I instead wanted to share a little how to! This is a journaling technique that I have only recently learned but one that I have quickly fallen in love with. It's very easy regardless of skill levels and creates beautiful page backgrounds!



Dying with Tissue Paper

• bleeding tissue paper
• small spray bottle or paint brush
• water

1. Start off by placing a page mat or similar under your page. Because we will be saturating the page, this is very important. If you do not have a page mat, a thin plastic cutting board works very well as well. 
2. Next, it's time to get the tissue paper ready. You can get fancy and cut of specific shapes if you'd like, but for my pages, I've just torn little pieces in various colors. I used BLEEDING tissue paper for this project, which is a specific type of tissue paper that will bleed when wet. It can be found online, or possibly local craft stores or office supply stores. In my research, I read that SOME typical tissue paper may work as well, but I tried with other tissue paper I'd had from various packages (Dayspring kits, etc), and I found they did not bleed (or did so little that it was not noticeable) so while you might try what you already have if you have some, I'd instead recommend buying this specific kind.
3. Next, lay the tissue paper out onto your page in whatever design/pattern you would like. I made sure to leave some areas overlapping to give some great color variations. 
4. Now it's time to saturate the tissue paper. Personally, I found that lightly spraying with a mini spray bottle worked best--- fast and easy, but you can also dip in a paintbrush in water if preferred. Saturate the tissue paper thoroughly. 
5. Allow to sit for a few minutes, and then very carefully remove the tissue paper pieces. Keep in mind that Bible pages are already quite thin, and by wetting them, they will become even more fragile, so you will want to go slowly and carefully so as not to rip your pages.
6. Allow the page to dry on its own, or use a blow dryer to speed up the process.
7. The background is done! Journal as usual! 

Here are a few more pages I have created using this technique:

The process is very simple, and I love how beautiful and vibrant it makes the background! You can even use a larger variety of colors to create a gorgeous tie dye effect. While this is a technique new to me, it has very quickly become a favorite that I look forward to using more in the future!

Have you tried this bleeding tissue paper technique? How did it work out for you?