There are many challenging things about being a parent and most of those challenges were to be expected, since I read about them in parenting books. But the one challenge I was not prepared for was the abundant amount of art my child would produce and endless decisions of what to do with it all. Every scribble, stroke, and dot-a-dot is precious but soon turns into piles and piles and more piles of mini-masterpieces. Does anyone else have a pang of guilt when a few of these masterpieces are tossed in the recycling?
There are many different ways of organizing it all, such as binders, frames and photo archives; all great ways to display and remember the scribbles and strokes. Today I am sharing with you another way to display those mini-masterpieces, as temporary tattoos. It's a fun way for kids and adults to wear their (or their kid's) art. I love how my son's art turned out and if you have older kids who can draw whole worlds, then making a temporary tattoo is a different and great way to display it.
| SUPPLIES |
Your Favorite Artwork
Scanner or Digital Camera
Photo Editing Software
Printer
Scissors
Washcloth
| STEPS |
1. Scan or photograph and upload your favorite artwork (best if it is on a white background).
2. Open the image in a photo editing software of your choice. After cropping and adjusting the exposure you must then mirror the image. I used PicMonkey (online & free!) and to mirror an image you simply click on the edit button and in the pop-up window press the double-arrow button (<-- -->). I saved this image and then used the collage option in PicMonkey to place several different mirrored images on one page.
3. Follow the instructions for loading the tattoo paper in your printer. For the Silhouette brand, the glossy side of the white paper is the side to print on (I did a test run by marking a plain piece of paper to determine how to feed the paper into my printer).
4. After the ink dries, adhere the protective sheet to the printed-on paper.
5. When ready to apply the temporary tattoo, cut it out and remove the protective sheet and use a wet washcloth to adhere the tattoo to the skin. Tattoos will wash off with mild soap and water.
I love how my son's art turned out as a tattoo and he was so excited to have something that he created become a tattoo. A little too excited, where I thought: " Did I just open the gate to his wanting lots and lots of real tattoos of his own design because making this is so cool?" But this thought will not stop me from creating temporary tattoos from his art because it is that fun. I hope you have as much fun creating kids art temporary tattoos as we did!
Find more at my blog Yay for Yaya.