Snowflake Window Clings

It is about to be that snowy time of year again, so I thought I would get my students ready with a little winter project.  I teach Art classes to K-5th graders, so I'm always looking for creative, fun, good- for- all- ages types of projects to do with them (and cheap ones too... our program's budget is very very small). I came across this idea for window clings from Martha Stewart actually, and thought the kids would really enjoy it.

I have to test out each project before I have my classes give it a go, so I recruited my roommate and we got down to business.

Supplies:

3-Dimensional Fabric Paint (puff paint)

Wax Paper

Paper

Pen/Marker/Pencil...whatever is within reach

Cooking Sheet (optional)

Glitter (optional)

First we began by drawing our snowflake design on a sheet of paper. Remember to keep it relatively simple, making sure everything you draw is somehow connected to the snowflake.

Now take your wax paper and place it over the stencil you have drawn.

Begin to carefully and gently trace over your lines with your fabric paint. I picked out colors like white, crystal, silver, white with glitter...you get the idea, any type of snow-like color.

One little tip: Your first squirt of paint, do off to the side. A big glob will probably come out first, and then you'll get a nice line.

I had some glitter left over from my Glitter Shoes project, which by the way, they got many, many, compliments when I wore them out. 

So we sprinkled some glitter on top of our wet paint.

Now to dry!

The cookie sheet is useful if you want to carry them to a different area when you are done. Otherwise, as long as you keep the snowflakes flat, they'll be just fine.  Depending on how thick the lines you make are, they seemed to take between 2 and 4 hours to completely dry.

Once dry, carefully peel them from the wax paper, dampen your window with some water, and stick!

So I decided to give this a try with my 3rd- 5th grade students yesterday.  They really loved the project! To prep it, I made 60 different snowflake designs on white paper ( all different), and I cut out the glitter portion of the project...I don't need any extra clean up work. The great thing is you can reuse each stencil, so you don't have to make one for each student.

The lesson that you can do along with this project is the explanation of every snowflake is unique and different, what makes you unique, special, and different from your friends? How are you the same as each other as well? 

We decided to donate all of the snowflakes we made to decorate Children's Hospital, along with a card one of the students made saying "We made you these snowflakes, because they are all beautiful and unique, just like you!"

Very proud of my little guys during this season of giving.

Happy Holidays!

--Emily Jo