Category: contact paper

Toddler Stained Glass Window

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This art project is gorgeous in a window hit by direct sunlight, and your toddler will be unable to resist the sticky surface!

While Travis was asleep, I cut scraps of multi-colored tissue paper and crepe paper, and arranged them in a bin. I then drew little floral motifs and various shapes on a large piece of contact paper with permanent markers.

Tape the contact paper, sticky side out, to a window and leave it for your toddler to find. In the morning, it only took Travis about 5 minutes. “Mom, you drew clouds!” (Well, I was going for flowers, but good enough!)

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Now that he had spotted it, I brought over the tissue paper scraps and showed him how they adhered to the paper.

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He tested out a few pieces, and then became very interested in the tissue paper itself for a while.

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His favorite way to attach the pieces was by crumpling them into balls first, an idea I hadn’t even considered!

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It was a project that we didn’t do all at once, bur rather one that he returned to over the course of the day. He also discovered how sticky the contact paper felt if he pressed it with his fingers!

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The project was best when we had gorgeous sunlight spilling in at midday. “Look at our stained [glass]!” he exclaimed, and added a few more pieces.

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Because I wanted him to have a real-world reference for the art we had created, we also popped into a local cathedral to marvel at the stained glass there.

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Be sure to leave your artwork up in the window for a few days to enjoy it!

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Sticky Situations Part 3

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Next time your toddler needs a “canvas” for their art, try taping a sheet of sticky contact paper to a window, wall, or the floor. Decorations can include crumpled tissue paper, cotton balls, or anything else that adheres to the contact paper. I’ve seen gorgeous rainbow art done in the this way!

I needed to wrap a gift in tissue paper, so thought Travis might have fun having a tissue paper project of his own to occupy him while I worked, but…

…. I should have subtitled this post “How Not to Entertain Your Toddler While Wrapping a Bridal Shower Gift.”

First, there was the excitement of sticky contact paper on the floor. Travis was very curious to walk across it, but needed my help for big sticky steps off a few times.

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We decided we were going to use his tissue paper to make a garden, so then came the fun of ripping the paper into pieces small enough to crinkle into “flowers.” This activity was delightful, although I had to play defense near the cat food bowls so that little tissue paper pieces didn’t end up in the turkey.

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We needed stems for our flowers, but I was out of green yarn. Luckily there’s nothing wrong with blue stems in a toddler’s magical fairy garden!

So then of course we needed glitter. Travis wasn’t content with a few sprinkles; he dumped on whole canisters of Martha Stewart Crafts glitter. “We need purple!” he insisted, once the green was all over our garden, and I couldn’t say no. He loved dumping the purple and spreading it evenly among his flowers.

At this point we were both covered in glitter and embarked upon clean-up with a lint roller. We had a great time, but needless to say, it’s not exactly the right distraction to keep a toddler busy while you’re wrapping someone else’s present!