DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Autumn Stained Glass Craft

Use this as a craft you can hang in your window.  There is an option at the bottom for younger kids, instead of melting crayons.
 

Materials:

• waxed paper.
   
• wax crayons (Crayola don't work as well as the cheap kind for this project, though they do still work)
• manual pencil sharpener (with a fairly large hole)
• iron, ironing board and scrap paper (white computer paper or brown paper bag)
• construction paper,
• scissors,
• glue stick or white glue.
   

Instructions:

• ADULT:  Plug in the iron and cover the ironing board with scrap paper.  Set the iron to medium (no steam).
   
• Tear a piece of waxed paper that's square (or a bit longer than it is wide) and fold it in half.  Then unfold.
   

• 
  This is a photo of us doing a heart,
  but the process is the same

  take the paper off some crayons and 'sharpen' them in the pencil sharpener.  Let the shavings drop onto 1/2 the waxed paper.
   
• Feel free to use whatever colors you would prefer.  You don't have to completely fill the space, it will spread about a bit when you use the iron.
   
• when you have a nice pile of shavings refold the waxed paper.
   
• Fold about 1/2 inch around all the edges so none of the wax leaks out when you iron.
   
• Place the waxed paper containing the shavings down on the ironing board and cover with more scrap paper.
   
• Iron for a few seconds.  Peek and iron a bit more if necessary.  All the wax should melt.  If you used multiple colours the longer you iron, the more your colors will mix.
   
• You'll find that nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens and then BAM it's totally melted, so just keep waiting a few seconds at a time and peeking so you don't burn anything.
   
• Let it sit about a minute to cool.
   
• Fold a piece of construction paper in half and then in half again.
   
• don't crease very much (the less you crease it the better, but young children may need it creased quite well).
   
• Print the template (link below) and cut out the half leaf shape.
   
• Line up the flat edge of the half leaf shape with the folded edge of the construction paper.  Trace the half leaf shape onto the construction paper.  Cut out the half leaf.
   
• Unfold the last fold of the construction paper and you'll see the leaf in the middle.
   
• Unfold the construction paper again and put glue around the cut out leaf.  Put your waxed paper ("stained glass") onto the glue and cover the cut out shape.
   
• Put glue around the cut out leaf on the other half of the construction paper and fold it over so the 'stained glass' is sandwiched between the construction paper.
   

ANOTHER OPTION:

• Pick a pretty autumn leaf and press it in a heavy book (like a phone book) for a few days.
   
• Tear a square of waxed paper and fold it in half.
   
• Place the pressed leaf in the center of the paper and shave some crayon over top. We like to use a couple of different crayon colors that we think would look nice with the leaf.
   
• Fold the waxed paper closed and melt the crayon with an iron.
   
• When the crayon is melted, you can make a construction paper frame for your autumn leaf or you can simply trim the waxed paper and hang it like that.
   

Optional:

Thanks Geri for sending this in!
"Have the kids color a picture with crayons.  They can color dark or light - it doesn't matter but the darker sometimes looks better.  They really do look like stained glass pictures, especially if the picture had heavy black lines."

• Use crayons, NOT markers or colored pencils.
• Have a few bowls with a VERY small amount of cooking oil and a couple of cotton balls in them.
• Have the kids flip the pages over and slowly and thoroughly rub the cotton balls on the paper.  (You'll see the paper turn transparent and the colors come through).
• Put them aside to dry (usually doesn't take long)!
• Cut them out and either hang them as is with a hole punched in them or frame them with construction paper.
   

Optional:

Thanks Terri for sending this in!
"I have done for this to make it more suitable for younger kids. Instead of using wax paper and melting crayons..."

• Use clear Contact Paper and tissue paper pieces.
• Put Contact Paper piece sticky side up on the table (may need to tape it down).
• Let kids stick tissue paper pieces to the sticky paper.
• Cover with another piece of Contact Paper sandwiching the tissue in between.
• Frame with dark construction paper as directed for the melted crayon version.
   

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
   
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).
   

 Leaf Template

 Pumpkin Template
 

Templates for the framing option:

 Square Template 

 Circle Template

Printable version of these instructions