I love the look of hand-painted logos on old wooden crates. Fancy decorations with beautiful lettering and details that I just don’t always have the time, patience, or really the skill level to have that much precision. Or, maybe you want the perfect tissue paper to personalize a special gift. I want to show you the best way I found to print on tissue paper.
I have read, watched, and tried lots of tutorials. Fun “research” if you ask me. Some of the tutorials that I found were helpful but most didn’t really offer an easy solution. It was only after the failures can I share what I have discovered and created that works.
Some of these tutorials used spray adhesive to stick the tissue to a piece of letter printer paper. This method can’t really prevent wrinkles and you are left with sticky paper, and who knows what’s going on in the printer. Is the glue getting caught in there? I don’t want to find out.
I have also seen people use a piece of tissue paper taped to the front of a letter-sized paper. This reduces your printable area and if you’re not careful in the taping you can get more creases and folds.
Both of these methods in theory work. However, I have a better solution for printing on tissue paper and I want to share it with you.
CARRIER SHEET
First, I am going to show you how to make a carrier sheet. The carrier sheet is what you will attach the tissue paper to so that it can safely travel through the printer. The carrier sheet provides the thickness so that the tissue paper can glide through the printer. Tissue paper on its own would get jammed in the printer and cause a mess.
I made mine out of an old plastic folder. It was a cheap solution and I count it as free because I had it laying in my office. Buying a stencil blank is an option too. The folder provided a sheet that is very flexible, sturdy, and easy to remove tape from. BONUS, it will be a reusable surface to tape our tissue paper to. I made two carrier sheets. One from the front of the folder and one from the back.
TIME FOR THE TISSUE
Now you will want to cut your tissue to match the with of your carrier sheet, 8.5”. The length isn’t as critical because you will want to wrap this around the back of the carrier sheet and tape it. I recommend using painter’s tape to secure the tissue paper to the back of your carrier sheet.
Be sure to check to see if the tissue paper you are using has a slightly glossy or shiny side of the paper. If it does be sure to print on the non-shiny or matte side of the paper. The tissue paper will absorb the printer ink much nicer this way. I found when I printed on the shiny side the ink didn’t absorb as much and I got some blotching and smearing, so hopefully, this saves you that trouble.
THRU THE PRINTER
Pay attention to how your paper goes through the printer. On my printer, the way it pulls the paper thru I have to put my tissue paper side face down to get the print on the correct size. If you are unsure, place a small “x” in pencil at the bottom of the right corner and run a test through your printer. It won’t take long for you to figure it out and will save frustration down the road printing on the tissue.
After you have successfully printed your image onto the tissue paper, you can either peel off the tape from the back or you can trim the image off the front with scissors. Just be sure to pay attention to not cut the carrier sheet. Then you can pull the extra tissue paper and tape away from the carrier sheet and toss that in the recycle bin.
TIPS & TRICKS
A couple of quick notes. Water or anything wet for that matter is NOT tissue paper’s friend. Make sure your work area is clean and dry. If the carrier sheets get ink they can be washed off.
Printed tissue will give you another tool for making so many craft and DIY projects. Mod Podge will be your best friend for tissue paper projects. Also, you can also print on colored tissue paper too. I find that a cream-colored tissue gives you that vintage feel right away.
GET GOING…
Sometimes, I want to be able to make a really small design, in a really hard-to-fit-in place. So what’s a girl to do? Welcome tissue paper. The thin paper with Mod Podge can get you there. Play around, get creative, and have fun! Click here to download some colorful prints:
