Tattoos aren’t just for bikers or bodies!

I was looking for a way to make some pretty, personalized soaps for the powder room. I had found some on-line tutorials using water slide decals but couldn’t find any in my local craft stores. I did, however, come upon some inkjet tattoo paper and thought I would give it a try. It worked out pretty well and the soap looks great in the powder room.

PROJECT SUPPLIES

DIGITAL SUPPLIES – Flower Pillow box Template Set and Cutting Files by Kelleigh Ratzlaff, Sheng Xiao by ViVa Artistry, Flutterby-Deux by Litabells Designs
Inkjet Tattoo Paper
Soap
Card Stock
Craft Knife
Brads

INSTRUCTIONS

This is the type of inkjet tattoo paper that I found at my local craft store. Read the instructions. I know that sounds silly but I rarely do and I invariably do it wrong. He he, ahem, like this time when I printed on the wrong side. It wiped off though so phew!

I looked for some soap that had no or minimal writing etched into it and found this at the dollar store. It smells pretty and is a nice neutral color. A craft knife was used to smooth the edges and flatten the letters out a little.

In Photoshop, I assembled the image that I wanted for the soap out of gorgeous paper and elements from the Flutterby-Deux byLitabells Designs kit.

The image, along with a couple “real” tattoos for my son were printed on the sheet. The instructions recommended using printer settings for regular printer paper so that is what I did. The dragons are from the Sheng Xiao by ViVa Artistry kit. You don’t have to print mirror images for this because what you see is what you get.

The directions say to trim as close as possible to the edge. I tried this and found that the more intricate the cuts are the more likely it is to tear when it is removed from the backing. This picture shows how I cut into the grooves. This resulted in tears.

I cut the second one in a more even edge around the oval as shown here and got much better results.

Fingernails are helpful in peeling the backing off and, man is this stuff sticky.

Place the decal on the soap. Even though it is sticky, I did find I was able to lift it up to smooth out some wrinkles. Do it very carefully though.

Since I thought this would not only make a nice decorative element for the powder room, but also a nice gift or shower item, I made a coordinating gift box. I used the Flower Pillow box Template Set and Cutting Files by Kelleigh Ratzlaff and coordinating papers/elements from the Flutterby-Deux byLitabells Designs kit for the box.