Stained Glass Quilt Art Project for Kids

Today all of the member of the 20 Moms group, of which I’m thrilled to be a member, are taking turns to guest post on each other’s sites. I am thrilled to have Jean from The Artful Parent sharing this wonderful art activity for young children, about how to make a beautiful stained glass quilt effect on the window! I am writing today over at A Mom with a Lesson Plan about how to set up simple still life drawing experiences for children. Follow each link around the circle until you end up back at this blog, and you will have seen some fantastic, high quality ideas all in one go!

Suncatchers and stained glass windows make me happy. As a kids’ art project, they are generally easy, FUN, and just plain beautiful. I’m all for the easy and fun projects that don’t end up with a beautiful finished product, such as shaving cream art + play, but when the finished product is amazing, too, and we can enjoy it as part of our everyday life… well, that’s my kind of extra special art product.

Here’s how the kids and I made these quilt stained glass windows:

MATERIALS

• Colored film (we bought large sheets in different colors for $2.50 each (1.65 pounds) at the art supply store, but we’ve also used transparent index dividers for stained glass art projects before as well)
• Transparent contact paper or sticky back plastic
• Scissors
• Tape
• Sharpies or other permanent markers

INSTRUCTIONS

1. (Optional) Look at images of quilts first with your children, either in books or on the web. I did a google image search for “Amish Quilt Squares.”

2. Cut the colored film into geometric pieces, including squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, etc. If your kids are like mine, they’ll also cut out hearts and amoebas and random bits and pieces. Any shape is fine, really.

3.  Cut the contact paper (sticky back plastic) down to the size of your window panes (if you have a multi-paned window) or just use a modest sized section of contact paper for a stand-alone quilt square stained glass.

I used a piece of paper the size of a window pane as a template and traced it onto the paper backing side of the contact paper. When I had 9 traced out (the number of window panes on our front door), I cut them all out.

4.  Tape the contact paper to your work surface with loops of tape, sticky side out. Pull down one corner of the paper backing (kids love to pull the paper backing the rest of the way off!)

5.  Press the colored film pieces to the contact paper in a quilt pattern of your choice or imagination. Leave enough of the contact paper (at least 1/4-1/2 inch or about 1 cm) uncovered around the circumferance of your quilt “square,” to adhere to your window.

6.  Add “fabric” patterns to your colored film shapes with the Sharpie markers.

Or, if you’re like my three-year-old, scribble and draw directly on the contact paper…

…and then add the colored film shapes.

7. Press the stained glass quilt squares onto your window panes, sticky side to the glass.

8. Admire and talk about the different patterns and colors everyone used.

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About Jean Van’t Hul Jean shares easy and fun kids’ art activities with parents and teachers on The Artful Parent. She is also the author of the brand new book (released today!), The Artful Parent: Simple Ways to Fill Your Family’s Life with Art and Creativity.

On a personal note, Jean’s site was an early favourite of mine and I never fail to be inspired when I visit. There is so much knowledge and experience packed into every article and I absolutely adore everything that she writes! I am honoured to be taking part in her book tour here on my blog tomorrow where I will be sharing my review of her stunning new book and an activity that we have tried from it too!