Christmas Craft: Stained Glass Tissue Paper Shapes For Your Tree Or Window

Do you remember making tissue paper stained glass art when you were a kid in school? It was always one of my favourite art class projects, especially around the holidays.

I’ve always wanted to do it with my daycare hooligans, but the process, as I remember it, was better suited for older kids with advanced fine-motor and scissor skills. The finished projects were also quite delicate, so overall, not an ideal project for preschoolers and kindergarteners.

But the other day, I set out to simplify that grade school process for my younger kids, and guess what made it possible — wax paper.

Yes! Wax paper is translucent enough that light still shines through the tissue paper, and it adds a tough layer of protection to the project, so no rips or tears!

So we made lovely Christmas shapes that make great ornaments, as the lights from the tree illuminate them beautifully. Or you can hang them in a window as holiday sun catchers. They add such a nice pop of colour to the room on a gloomy winter day.

Let me show you how easy they are to make.

What You'll Need:

• black construction paper or card stock
• cookie cutters (or traceable shapes)
• pencil
• scissors
• tissue paper
• wax paper
• glue stick
• paper punch
• string for hanging

Looking for more Christmas crafts? Find out how to make beautiful folded paper ball ornaments here.

How It's Made:

Trace around a cookie cutter on the black paper. When you cut, make sure you're cutting outside of the pencil line by a 1/4 of an inch, instead of cutting along your pencil line.

Then cut along your original pencil line, and remove the inner piece of paper so you’re left with a silhouette of your shape.

Tear several colours of tissue paper into thin strips and glue them to the wax paper until you’ve covered an area bigger than your silhouette shape. Next, glue the silhouette over top of the tissue paper.

Press firmly in place, and then cut all around the edge of the shape to remove the excess tissue paper and wax paper.

Punch a hole in the top of your shape and hang it on your Christmas tree or in a window.