Morning you guys!

With the help of the lovely Old Bear Media's photography skills, I'm so chuffed to say we've created an ace little DIY for all you creative brides (and grooms!) to be in the form of an oh-so-hot-right-now temporary tattoo! Whether you choose to don them alongside all your gals at your hen party (as my gorgeous friend, Kim, did this weekend!), create a load for your man's stag do or treat your wedding guests to a little tatt sesh, they're super fun, totally customisable and a pretty easy DIY!

Let's get started shall we?

So first up, here's what you're going to need to get this DIY from conception to completion, in order of appearance:

• A computer
• An inkjet printer
• Normal A4 paper
• Temporary tattoo paper (we sourced ours here)
• A 30cm ruler
• Scissors

And for the tattoo application:

• A bowl of cool water
• A wash cloth
• A large make up brush (optional)
• Face powder (again, optional)

The first thing you're gonna want to do is spend some time really nailing your design. There are loads of temporary tattoo companies out there to gain inspiration from or just head on over to Pinterest to get those creative juices flowing.

Once you've got an idea, if you're lucky enough to know a graphic designer, get them on the case (my hubby knocked this design up in just 10 mins), or alternatively get on Microsoft Word (it's surprising what you can create!) or freestyle your design with a good old pen and paper and then scan your image in, ready to print.

Here's the key bit, and yes I am gonna capitalise it:

YOU MUST MIRROR YOUR DESIGN

...that way it'll transfer to your skin perfectly! We printed our design a few times on normal paper to get it parfait and squeezed as many of them as we could on to that (rather pricey) tattoo paper!

Once you're totally happy with the design and sheet layout, use the white sheet from the tattoo pack and make sure you load it into your printer so that it will print onto the glossy side. Set your printer to photo paper settings (i.e. best quality) and print away!

Once your printed tattoos are completely dry (we're talking like an hour later, gals) comes undoubtedly the trickiest part of this DIY, so I'm gonna share the method I've found to produce the best, bubble-free results:

• Take the blue backed sheet from the tattoo paper pack.
• At one end, there's a perforation, only peel away the thin strip (as below) revealing the sticky adhesive on the transparency, but be sure to leave the blue backing on the rest of the sheet.
• Carefully line up this exposed thin area of the adhesive sheet with the top of your printed tattoo sheet (design side up) and press down. The adhesive from the clear sheet is going to transfer over to the printed tattoo sheet.

• Now, place a ruler along the top of the adhesive sheet, with your printed tattoo sheet underneath.
• Gently begin to peel away the blue backing sheet (you should just need to start it off) and constantly apply pressure across the sheet as you slowly slide the ruler down, allowing the blue backing to come away entirely by the time your ruler reaches the bottom (see below).
• This way you should have covered the printed tattoo sheet completely with the clear adhesive sheet and you can discard the blue backing paper.

If any air bubbles appear beneath your clear sheet, use your ruler to gently push them out to the edge, until the clear sheet is completely stuck. This is super important to make sure all the designs are properly covered in adhesive.

It gets easier from here on in, gals, I promise!

Next up, all we're gonna do (a little time consuming, but the results are totally worth it) is carefully cut around the tattoo designs, as close as you dare, still leaving the clear sheet stuck to the printed design.

If you're anything like me (a super slow, ridiculously distracted scissor user), 3 hours later... Et voilà; you're done!

For those of you who were under a rock in the 90s, here's how to apply your tattoos!

You might want to set up a little stall at your bridal shower, or wedding, to keep any mess contained and get the best application results, but it's pretty simple stuff!

Get yourself a little bowl of cool water and a face cloth, and dampen the cloth. Next, you're gonna want to peel away the clear layer from your tattoo, revealing the now tacky to the touch design.

Once you've decided on your tattoo placement, firmly press the tacky tattoo face down on to your skin, making sure it's pretty well stuck!

Using your damp cloth, gently dab the back of the tattoo. Make sure you dab, no wiping or swiping actions - you might drag your lovely design across your skin!

Dab, dab and dab a little more until your design is quite clearly visible through the backing paper (see below).

Once your tattoo is wet enough, the backing paper should easily slide off, leaving your gorgeous design stuck to your skin! Success!

For the best finish, I'd recommend lightly (like, really lightly) dusting the tatt with a little face powder. To be honest, even the residue of your last makeup application is probably enough just to get rid of any sheen and leave a more matte design on your skin.

And of course, however much you customise something, there's always one diva that's gotta go a step further and do a tattoo hack... Yeah, that'd be me. Play around with your design, cutting it up pre-application and arranging in various ways!

Hope you've enjoyed this one, lovelies. Any questions, please drop me a comment below and I'll be happy to help.

Peace + love,

Clare X