Homemade Temporary Tattoo

How to Make a Custom Temporary Tattoo

The reason I'm posting this is because almost all of the "How-To"s I found involved either Temporary Tattoo Paper (very expensive) or sharpies. The reason I didn't like the sharpies is I wanted to test the tattoo out on my back (yes, the picture is on my arm, but that was because I wanted a quick test, I didn't think this method would actually work!) Needless to say, I don't trust my so very mature (yeah, right) boyfriend, Tom, drawing with sharpies on my back. This is the method I'll be sharing with you today. Just making sure to give proper credit. I'd appreciate you reading mine as well, though! :)

Here is what you will need:

-Your image
-Printer
-Backside of a used sheet of stickers (where the stickers stick to)
-Glue stick
-Scissors
-Fine point sharpie (optional)

1. My original design was one I drew, see!

As you can see, that's a dime for perspective purposes.

2. I sent the image from my phone to my computer. I cut out the dime and edited the picture as best I could to make the paper as white as possible and the pencil as black as possible. I did this by experimenting with the brightness and contrast settings in plain ol' Microsoft Word.

3. Unless your image is perfectly symmetrical, you need to flip your it so it's a mirror image of the original. I hope that's not confusing.

4. Take your sticker paper, make sure this is NOTHING on it. No stickers, or that annoying outline of sticker that no one ever uses. This should be a glossy sheet of thin paper.

5. Load it into the printer making sure it will print on the GLOSSY side. Fortunately the backs of stickers are so easy and cheap to come by, it's no big deal if you mess up. I did, three times! :)

6. Who can guess what's next? Print!

7. Spread some glue from your glue stick on your skin where you want the tattoo to be.

8. Cut out your printed image, making sure not to smudge it, it will be wet for a while.

9. Place your image printed-side-down on top of the glued patch of skin. 

10. Hold it there for a good 10-20 seconds and carefully peel off.

There you go! Your own temporary tattoo without all the waterslide paper nonsense. (It was funny to see people's faces when asking for this at Staples or AC Moore). I did notice that mine came out more grey than black so since my test spot was on my arm, I could easily go over the design with a sharpie fine point marker and darken it up, but it's up to you. Play around with the length of time holding it on your skin, if the ink is dry or wet, and maybe even wiggling it around to get more of the ink from the sheet to your skin.

Thanks for reading! If you like my posts, I definitely suggest that you...

Mason Jar PIggy Bank

This is a mason jar piggy bank I made for Molly, my boyfriend (Tom's) daughter for those of you who don't know me. Got a mason jar, etched it, dyed it purple, added some ribbon, and a cute top with a slot for the coins (you can't see it in this picture). Now I expect Molly will be filling it up with all of Daddy's change ;)


I'm thinking about making a tutorial for this, if you'd like to see one, leave me a comment and follow me on Pinterest! :) Thanks for viewing!!

Watercolor and Freezer Paper

Home is where the "heart" is

Materials: Tape, freezer paper, an image printed of your "home," mine is Cape Cod, an iron, Watercolor paper, watercolors, an exacto knife, a fine tip pen, and a white crayon. Also not shown are cotton swabs or paper towel, paint brushes, small stack of newspaper, and a cup of water.

1. Take your printed image and tape it to the PLASTIC side (very important) of the freezer paper.

2. Begin tracing with your fine tip pen the outline of your image. 

Side note: If I could do this again, I'd go on Google Maps, take an image from there, and pinpoint my actual address. 

3. Put your freezer paper tracing on the newspaper (to protect surfaces) and begin cutting out with your exacto knife. This took me about 20 minutes.

4. Cut out a little heart where you live. Like I said, I wish I'd printed an image from Google with an exact mark. This is just an estimation. Accurate, but still an estimation.

5. I'm sorry if this is hard to see, but I placed Cape Cod where I wanted it on the paper and ironed it down WITHOUT STEAM!!! The iron was set on cotton (just about the highest setting) and I made sure not to stay in one spot too long. You don't want to burn all your hard work!

6. I apologize, the next two steps are not shown because my phone started malfunctioning. Anyway, write out whatever you want, (I chose Home is where the heart is) in your white crayon. I made sure to make it a little thicker than the width of a regular crayon line. Do whatever you want, however you want! This is YOUR beautiful piece of art. I only hope to be mere inspiration :) 

7. Working fairly quickly, outline your cut-out with your watercolor(s) of choice. I noticed that the freezer paper didn't hold for very long and started to bubble in some spots. If this happens, just begin your brush strokes on the freezer paper going toward the watercolor paper. Hopefully, it won't get under the stencil. But hey, if it does, whatever. Handmade goodies are never perfect, and that's what gives them character! :)

8. With a cotton swab or piece of paper towel, wipe away the excess paint over the letters. 

9. I'd say wait a few minutes for it to dry, maybe you could try blotting it with a paper towel, all I know is, I think I took my freezer paper Cape Cod off a little too soon. But it's up to you. Take the freezer paper off and....

VOILÁ!

I hope my tutorial was sufficient, it was the first one I've ever made. I'd love to see your creations as well! Find me on Pinterest to show me your versions! Thanks for reading!