Time needed: 30 minutes

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cut your contact paper

   First, cut your contact paper to fit inside the space you will decorating (window or door frame) and peel off the backing. Sometimes it helps to tape the contact paper to your table or workspace, so it doesn’t curl up.

2. Add flowers and leaves!

   Next, arrange your flower petals and leaves on the sticky side of the contact paper. You can create flower mandalas and other designs – whatever you’d like!
   
   

3. Attach to the window

   Finally, stick the contact paper to your window or door. Step back and enjoy the beautiful stained glass you’d created!
   
   

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Fold and cut your egg

   First, fold your sheet of construction paper in half vertically and draw a half egg on one side. Cut through both layers of paper to create your symmetrical egg.
   
   

2. Draw shapes on your egg

   Next, draw shapes along the center fold line of your paper egg and cut them out.
   
   Note: You can also cut them out directly, without drawing them first, as when making a paper snowflake.
   
   

3. Add more shapes

   Open your paper egg, then fold both sides inward.
   
   Draw, then cut, more shapes along both folded sides of the paper egg.
   
   

4. Add ‘stained glass’

   Finally, use a glue stick to glue colored tissue paper to the back of your Easter egg (the side with the white pencil markings).
   You can do strips of different colors or use one sheet of tissue paper for the entire egg.
   
   Trim the edges if necessary.
   
   

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Arrange beads in metal baking dish.

   We find that translucent pony beads work the best for this project. Arrange the pony beads into a single layer in your metal baking dishes.
   
   If you want to make a large suncatcher, you can use a cake pan. But we love making lots of little suncatchers by filling smaller muffin tin sections.
   
   
   
   
   And don’t worry about your pans! As soon as a bead suncatcher is cool, it should pop right out and not leave any visible residue at all!
   
   
   
   

2. Melt the beads.

   Important Note! The melting plastic is not good to breathe, so this step is best done outside.
   
   We make all of our melted bead suncatchers on the gas grill outside so that we don’t get any toxic chemicals inside. The grill works great and only takes about 10 minutes! You could also use a toaster oven outside. But whichever way you melt the beads, be sure to do so outside!
   
   

3. Let the suncatchers cool.

   Once the suncatchers are cool, invert the pans and they’ll pop right out!

4. Hang your melted bead suncatcher.

   Drill a small hole in each suncatcher with a power drill, then string thread or twine through the holes to hang them up. You can hang them individually or string several together to make a mobile.
   
   We decided to hang the melted bead suncatchers on the front porch to catch the morning sunlight.
   
   

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Create your suncatcher frame

   Begin by making a frame for your suncatcher by cutting a hole in the center of a paper plate.
   
   Next, use the paper plate frame to draw a circle on the contact paper. The circle on the contact paper should be about a half an inch larger than the hole in the frame, so that it will fit the opening and stick to the plate.

2. Press flower petals and leaves to the contact paper

   Arrange flower petals, petal pieces, and leaves in any design you like.
   
   
   

3. Finish and hang the suncatcher

   Add another circle of contact paper over the top to protect and hold the design in place.
   
   Punch a hole at the top of the frame and tie a loop of string for hanging. Then find a sunny window and hang your suncatcher!
   
   

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Arrange plastic beads in metal dish

   First, lay out your plastic pony beads in the small metal baking dish. You can use a concentric rainbow design as we did here or any design that you like.
   
   Remember you want to use translucent pony beads. They need to be somewhat transparent so they will act like a suncatcher and let the light shine through them.
   
   

2. Melt beads on grill

   Important Note! Melting plastic is not good to breathe, so this step is best done outside.
   
   We make all of our melted bead suncatchers on the gas grill outside so that we don’t get any toxic chemicals inside. The grill works great and only takes about 10 minutes! You could also use a toaster oven outside. Whichever way you melt the beads, be sure to do so outside!
   
   Start checking the melting beads after about 5 minutes. You want the beads to be fully melted (not bumpy or pebbly) but be careful that you don’t heat the plastic beads for too long so they bubble and burn.

3. Let cool

   Once the suncatchers are cool, invert the pans and they’ll pop right out!
   
   

4. Let the sun shine through!

   Hold your new plastic bead suncatcher up to the light and admire!
   
   

5. Drill a hole to hang your suncatcher (optional)

   You can use an electric hand drill to drill a small hole at the top of your suncatcher to add a hanging loop. You could also use a hot glue gun to glue a hanging ribbon to the top.
   
   

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cut your contact paper

   First, cut your contact paper to fit inside the space you will decorating (window or door frame) and peel off the backing. Sometimes it helps to tape the contact paper to your table or workspace, so it doesn’t curl up.
   
   If your children would like, they can draw on the contact paper pieces with sharpies first, before adding the leaves.

2. Add leaves!

   Next, add autumn leaves face down to the sticky side of transparent contact paper. We’ve found that it’s best to use freshly picked leaves.
   
   
   
   Pro tip: From making many flower petal and leaf suncatchers in the past, we’ve learned that after a week or two the leaves and flowers look as though they’ve been pressed and dried, especially if they were thin to begin with (i.e. there isn’t a full flower or layers of flowers but rather flat leaves or flower petals).

3. Stick to window

   Finally, simply stick the contact paper to your window or door. Step back and enjoy the beautiful stained glass you’d created!
   
   

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Prep your materials

   First, grate the crayons. Be sure to keep the colors separate in bowls or muffin tin sections.
   
   Then, preheat the iron to the cotton setting. Make sure to turn off the steam.
   
   Lastly, prep the wax paper. Cut a length of it and fold it in half, making a crease at the center.

2. Sprinkle grated crayons over the wax paper

   Cover one half of the wax paper with crayon shavings. Fold the other half on top to cover the crayon shavings, so it resembles a sandwich.

3. Melt the crayon shavings

   Carefully set the wax paper sandwich on your ironing board between layers of newsprint (the newsprint will protect your iron from being damaged by the melting crayon). Iron the sandwich enough to melt the crayon.
   

4. Create leaves!

   Make as many as you’d like and then cut the melted-crayon sheets into leaf shapes.
   
   

5. Hang your leaves

   You can tape or glue your leaves to the window. A little dab of gluestick works perfectly!
   
   

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Gather some crayons

   Chunky toddler crayons are awesome because they are quicker and easier to grate. But regular crayons work fine, too. Any crayons you have on hand will do the trick.
   
   

2. Grate crayons

   Grate your crayons on a sturdy cheese grater to produce crayon shavings. Be careful with your fingers!
   Note: You can also use a pencil sharpener to make crayon shavings.
   
   
   
   To some of you, this might look like a lot of work and not very fun. But kids LOVE to do this. The crayon grating part of this activity went on for days.
   
   
   
   Keep your crayon shavings separated by color in individual dishes or the sections of a muffin tin.

3. Add crayon shavings to wax paper

   Cut or tear a sheet of wax paper and fold it in half to crease the center. Unfold.
   
   Trays come in handy, to contain the crayon shavings and to transport the half-finished artwork to the iron but are not necessary.
   
   
   
   Add crayon shavings to one side of the wax paper in any pattern or design desired. 
   A small amount will go a long way. Fold the second half of the wax paper back over to sandwich in the crayon shavings.
   
   

4. Melt your crayon shavings

   Set the wax paper/crayon shaving sandwich on a piece of newsprint or other paper on your ironing board or surface. Place another piece of paper on top.
   
   The paper is to soak up the oils from the melting crayon.
   
   
   
   Run the iron over the paper/wax paper/crayon shaving sandwich slowly and evenly to melt the crayon. We use low heat, such as the silk setting.
   
   Lift the top paper off to reveal your new melted crayon stained glass.
   
   If you see areas where the crayon shavings haven’t melted, simply put the paper back down and iron over the area some more.
   
   

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cut tissue paper into pieces

   First, cut (or tear) tissue paper into small squares or other geometric shapes.
   
   

2. Brush glue or starch on wax paper

   It helps to tape down your sheet of wax paper, so that it doesn’t move around. Then, brush the watered-down glue or liquid starch all over the waxed paper.

3. Add tissue paper squares

   Set a piece of tissue paper on the glue-covered piece of wax paper, then brush more glue or liquid starch over the piece.
   
   

4. Keep going!

   Continue adding layers of glue and colored tissue paper until your wax paper is covered with beautiful tissue paper.
   
   

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Grate your crayons

   First, grate your crayons on the cheese grater and put the shavings into separate compartments of a divided container or a muffin tin. Small bowls would work just as well.
   
   

2. Create your crayon shaving sandwich

   Arrange your crayon shavings on half of a folded over piece of wax paper.
   Then, fold the other half over the shavings, creating a “sandwich”.
   
   

3. Iron your shavings

   Set the wax paper/crayon shaving sandwich on a piece of newsprint or other paper on your ironing board or surface. Place another piece of paper on top.
   
   Run the iron over the paper/wax paper/crayon shaving sandwich slowly and evenly to melt the crayon. We use low heat, such as the silk setting.

4. Repeat

   Repeat this process as many times as you’d like, until you have enough melted crayon sheets to make your bunting.

5. Make your bunting

   Once the wax melts are cool, cut them into triangles for the stained-glass bunting.
   
   We sewed our triangles together, but if you don’t have a sewing machine, you could either use a hot glue gun and ribbon or you could fold a piece of masking tape along the top to create the bunting.