I love doing crafty projects with my kids. One of the fun projects I’ve done with a few of my children is this fall “stained glass” art work. It was really fun for them and the pieces they created turned out beautiful!
My only regret is that I didn’t keep any of the pieces for myself! We gave all of these pieces to a grandparent as a gift. But lucky for us, we get to see them every fall when they get put on the windows again. It’s a gift that keeps on giving!
But did you know that there are other benefits to crafting with your children, besides just having fun?
Benefits of Crafting with Kids
Here are just a few of the benefits offered by doing crafts together:
- They encourage parents to spend quality time with their children.
- They inspire more creativity, since one project often leads to another.
- When children complete a project, they have most certainly learned a new skill, which can be applied in different ways.
- Children often learn perseverance, when learning a new skill is difficult.
- Taking the time to complete a masterpiece takes lots of patience!
- A beautifully completed project can boost their confidence and pride and build self-esteem.
- Focusing on the task at hand often relieves pressure and stress of the day.
- Many crafts use patterns and are great at building STEM skills, such as early math and creative problem-solving skills.
- They induce imaginative play, since kids can play with the toys they made themselves.
- Spending more time on the creative arts has been shown to boost academic performance.
That’s a pretty long list! If we thought about it longer, we could probably come up with more benefits than this. But I think 10 will suffice!
What Supplies Will I Need?
In order to do this craft project, you will need the following supplies:
- Design Templates (see below) or your own imagination!
- Construction Paper of different colors
- Clear Con-Tact Shelf Liner or Glue sticks
- Tissue Paper of different colors, cut into ½” squares
- Scissors
Since we do quite a bit of crafting, I happened to have most of these supplies at home already. The Con-Tact liner is probably the only thing you may not have, but you can find this at Walmart in the kitchen department or on Amazon at the link above.
It is helpful if you have a printer, so that you can print the design templates right on construction paper and simply cut them out. If not, and you have a steady hand, you can make your own free-hand designs.
Tissue Paper
Also, I have a difficult time throwing things out that I think I might have a use for at some later date. Tissue paper is one of them! I hate throwing out tissue paper. And it really came in handy for this project. I pulled out previously used tissue paper and had the kids cut them into squares. We separated the colors into Ziploc bags. It saved us a little bit of currency and trash going to the landfill. But you could always buy a fresh pack of tissue paper for this project. Just make sure you get an assortment of colors!
How Do You Make These “Stained Glass” Works of Art?
Choose Your Design
For the fall, I chose the following designs.
Once you have chosen the designs you want to make, trace or print the designs on construction paper. Cut the designs out, leaving a hole, the shape of the design, in the middle.
Then, set up your work area. I put our tissue paper squares in little buckets in the middle of our table. You can find inexpensive small metal favor pails at Party City in an assortment of
Methods of Producing Art
You must, then, decide which method you want to use, method 1 using glue or method 2 using Con-Tact Shelf Liner.
In method 1, you will use a glue stick to paste the tissue paper squares in the center of each design, starting on the outside and working your way to the center. This method could be rather messy, though, for small children, especially. They need much more help getting the pieces to stick together and not on their little hands!
In method 2, you will tape a sheet of Con-Tact Shelf Liner to the table, sticky side up. You then place the design on the sticky Con-Tact liner and continue to place colored tissue paper in the center of your design. It is virtually mess free! When done, place another sheet of Con-Tact Shelf Liner on top of the design, sticky side down. The design should now be sandwiched between the sticky liners and can be cut out to size.
At this point, you can be done with the art project. Or, you could choose to preserve your designs for prolonged enjoyment.
How Do You Preserve Your “Stained Glass” Art?
After cutting your designs out of the Con-Tact liner, or letting them thoroughly dry from all of the gluing, you may choose to laminate them to make sure the artwork does not get damaged with time. Even though the tissue paper was glued on or the Con-Tact liner is holding the design together, the work can degrade over time, get ripped or be a victim of water damage.
In my DIY Dried Flower Bookmarks article, I mentioned how purchasing a laminator at Walmart was one of the best investments I’ve made in craft supplies. This was one of the first projects that my children made that I laminated. I have been finding endless uses for it ever since!
How To Laminate Your Designs
We put each design in a laminating pouch and ran it through the laminator. It takes about 5 minutes for the laminator to get warmed up and maybe another 1 minute to run each pouch through. The art works are laminated instantly and can be cut to size right away. I usually leave a small ¼” to ½” edge of laminate around each design, rounding all of the corners.
Once laminated, the “stained glass” art should stay beautiful indefinitely. They can be taped to windows or sliding glass doors without being damaged. However, they can be bent, so you should still use caution when handling them.
These fall stained glass art pieces make beautiful homemade gifts for birthdays, holidays or just because! And your kids will feel so proud to make something so beautiful that is on display catching the light just right. I’m hoping I can convince my kidos to make some more of these just for me! Hopefully, this inspires you and your little ones to make something beautiful of your own, too.
Have you made fall stained glass art at home? What patterns did you use and how did they turn out? Please share below.
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