How to Make a Melted-Crayon, Stained-Glass Window

With fall fast approaching, children or anyone like to have a craft project to do. One of the easiest and inexpensive projects that I have seen is a crayon-stained glass frame that accents fall colors.

What materials you will need. Black construction paper, scissors, waxed paper, crayon pieces or crayons with a fall color, glue, a large leaf, and an electric iron.
The leaf can be just one or several different types.

First take your two sheets of black construction paper and put them together. You can either do one large square or you can cut them into 5" by 5" squares. Next take your leaf and hold it on the square and trace around the edge of the leaf on the black construction paper. If you do several leafs on a large square, be sure to space them out. You might want to do a large leaf in the center and the smaller ones around the outside of the larger one.

Once you have your major design, cut out the leaves inside the paper. It is best to use the pointed type of scissors. If you don't have them, then be sure to start your cuttings in the center part of the leaf and work your way to the border you just drew. Cut the same through both pieces of the construction paper by holding them together. The squares of paper will have solid edges with no tears or breaks in them from the cutting you did.

Now shave the paper off the crayons. Most of them can be done by your finger nails. Be sure to use fall colors like red, yellow, brown, gold, etc. Now shave these crayon pieces into smaller shavings. Place them on one of the pieces of wax paper. While you are doing this, plug in your iron so that it will warm up. It is best if an adult handles the iron instead of young children. Place another piece of wax paper over the shavings and other piece of wax paper. Take your warm iron and go over the top piece. This will melt the colors together where they lay.

When it has cooled cut the wax paper so that they will fit between the squares of construction paper. Lay one piece of the construction paper down on the table and place/glue the wax paper to it. Let it dry. Now take the other piece of construction paper and place it over the top so that the borders match up as does the leaf borders. Glue it into place and set it aside to dry.

Tips; When tracing your leafs, you can do it diagonal if you want so that you can hand it from the corner. Use the suction cup hooks to hand it on the window. Center it on the top frame of a window on the sunny side of the house. If you don't have the hooks small scotch tape will work. I like the idea of leafs for the fall but, you can use pumpkins or the outline of a horn of plenty, too. I have even seen a large one with a tree outline covering an entire top of a window frame.

I also like the idea of using what I call recycled crayons. These are the old used broken crayons that are thrown into an old jar or box. The iron idea works great because it will tend to press the colors down flatter. It also makes less of a mess. Don't worry about the wax paper being off color or not very clear. As the sunlight comes through the wax paper, the crayon colors will help negate that wax paper color.

This is a great project that children or anyone can do. Lastly, don't be afraid to be creative.