Fun, Easy Crafts for Kids: How to Make a Suncatcher
I keep a file of fun, easy crafts for kids on a Pinterest board. So, anytime the grandkids come over unexpectedly, I have a few ideas for what we can do.
Recently, we made sun catchers from one of the ideas I had saved–it was a craft project from Mombrite.
You simply pour out enough white school glue (such as Elmer’s) onto a flexible plastic lid to cover the surface. The lid will serve as your mold. A flexible lid is important because you’ll have to bend back the lid to coax out the finished suncatcher after the glue has dried.
Do not make the layer of glue too thick, or it will take very long to dry. We started our project on Friday and one of our disks didn’t dry completely until Monday night.
Another fun, easy craft project is clothespin dolls, made from scraps.
Dot some paint on the glue surface. The instructions call for food coloring or liquid water color paint. We used acrylic colors and they worked just fine.
You can work with a variety of colors or just one or two. We preferred multicolored sun catchers so we were generous with the number of paint tubes we used.
Now take a toothpick and track it through the color dots to create a design.
If colors are mixed up too much, the effect can turn muddy. And if you mix complimentary colors together (red/green, purple/yellow, orange/blue) expect a drab brown.
How to Finish
Allow the designs to dry undisturbed for two to three days. When completely dry, the glue surface will no longer be tacky to the touch and the glue disk will begin to pull away from the edges of the plastic lid.
Release the glue disk out of the lid by bending the lid back.
What to do with leftover acrylic paint? Make spice jar vases.
To give yourself a head start, put the tip of a paring knife between the edge of the glue disk and the edge of the lid and gently pry the disk from the lid. (This is a job for an adult.)
After the glue disk has been released, make a hole with a hole punch and hang your sun catcher on a window with twine or ribbon.
More Fun and Easy Craft Ideas
You’ll find more craft ideas to do with kids that I’ve curated on my Pinterest board, including leaf prints, dinosaur fossils, magic wand reading pointers, and more.
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