Every year when I was growing up, my family would attend a holiday festival at our local Waldorf school, and every year I would make a suncatcher from string and glue (similar to these). It was one of my favorite craft activities, and I looked forward to it each year. I knew that my boys would love to make their own “stained glass” suncatchers, but they’re still not quite old enough to master the technique and gentle touch necessary to make the suncatcher base out of string. I came up with a plan to create stained glass snowflakes using thick chipboard as the frame – much easier for younger kids!
What You’ll Need:
- Chipboard Snowflakes – cut your own or purchase pre-cut
- Elmer’s Classic Glitter Glue, assorted colors
- Elmer’s Glue Stick
- Parchment Paper
- Markers (NOT Washable!)
- Toothpicks
We wanted our snowflakes to have the appearance of stained glass, so the boys started by using a permanent marker to color their snowflakes black. If you choose to color your snowflake use only permanent markers or Elmer’s Painters Pens to avoid having the color run when you add the glue later.
Use the glue stick to adhere the snowflake to a small piece of parchment paper. Parchment paper is a non-stick surface, so this bond will only be temporary – gluing the snowflake on to the parchment paper helps to ensure that the snowflake stays flat and immobilized while you’re adding the glue in the next step.
Fill all of the openings in the snowflake with a generous amount of Elmer’s Glitter Glue. Use a toothpick if necessary to help spread the glue into all of the corners and edges.
Allow the designs to dry for 24-48 hours and then carefully peel the design from the parchment paper backing.
Use a small piece of double stick tape to hang your snowflakes in a window where they will catch the sun and show off their sparkly cheer. I had a hard time capturing the brilliant colors with my camera (we’re in the middle of a big storm and the sky is really dark outside), but these pretty suncatchers are just as bright and cheery hanging up in the window as they are in the in-progress photos above.
The dried glitter glue actually looks like glittered glass up close! It’s SO pretty!
In the dark and grey days of winter, I love having these sparkly snowflakes hanging in our windows to brighten things up and bring in some cheery color!
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Nina Lewis says
These are stunningly beautiful! I want to make them myself. . .
I wasn’t aware of this glitter glue. I’ll have to see if my local store carries it.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Nina
Pat Radell says
I love your snowflakes! However, when I tried to find similar online I could find none as pretty as the ones you used! It occurs to me that each snowflake must have mostly enclosed spaces in order to use the glue. Most snowflakes online do not. Can you advise where you got your snowflakes?
PATRICIA says
I WANT TO MAKE YOUR SNBOWFLAKES BUT WHERE CAN YOU GET THOSE SNOWFLAKES
AS CANT FIND THEM ANYWHERE LOVE YOUR SNOWFLAKES AND WANT TO MAKE THEM SOON
DO YOU KNOW ANY WEB SITES YOU DOULD DOWNLOAD A TEMP LIKE YOUR WSNOWFLAKES AND IF TRHAT WOULD WORK PLEASE LET ME KNOW THANKS
Heidi says
I created my snowflakes using my Silhouette CAMEO electronic cutting machine, but if you are going to hand cut your snowflakes, I love these clipart designs from Etsy. (CLICK HERE!) Just print them out and use an Xacto knife to cut them out!
Dyann says
Totally love this idea !! I had to stencil & cut my own as I was sorely disappointed in the ones I bought(& returned,lol) off your link. While they were gorgeous snowflakes, there were barely any “open areas” to put the glitter into…luckily I had a gazillion snowflake patterns,I just printed & x-acto cut them out.I’m going to try this next with some amazing mandala stencils I could use instead of snowflakes,so I could leave them up year round š Thanks for the idea jumping off point !!