It’s a weird feeling knowing that Easter is right around the corner at the same time as knowing that Easter is later than usual this year. It makes time seem contradictory. The weather is warming up, the bluebonnets are in full bloom, and the realization that my Little Miss is essentially a toddler now, not a baby, makes this spring bitter sweet.
Easter items started popping up in the stores the day before Valentine’s Day, so we’ve been gorging on tiny candy-coated chocolate eggs for a few months now. There are so many varieties of Easter candy and egg-dying kits now that it can be easy to forget the true meaning of the holiday. I kept this in mind when trying to figure out a craft for the Easter holiday.
If you do a quick search on Pinterest, there are a ton of toddler and preschool Easter crafts, but the majority of them are either egg-dying related or bunny related. Don’t get me wrong. I love bunnies and we will dye eggs, but I wanted a craft that was more than just that. I wanted a craft that reminded us of Jesus and his sacrifice for us. That was when I came across several pins that were either “stained-glass” bunnies or “stained-glass” crosses. I loved this idea of something that I could hang in our window and remind us of the reason for Easter.
There was just one problem. All of the ones I was finding seemed messy and not baby friendly. They involved wax paper and glue and somehow using a popsicle stick to smear glue onto the wax paper. I don’t know about y’all, but I know what that would result it. It would end with sticky children, sticky furniture, and a frustrated mama. I’m all about not having that frustration.
It was when I was mentioning this craft to one of my friends at church that she mentioned using contact paper. BRILLIANT! Contact paper is not messy and it is baby-safe. Using contact paper was probably one of the best decisions I made with this craft.
The other hurdle I faced was getting Little Mister, my tactile-learning little boy, to put the tissue paper INSIDE the outline of the cross, not just anywhere on the contact paper. This posed quite the difficulty. No matter how many times I seemed to tell him, “Little Mister, put the paper inside the cross, not outside,” and to point inside the outline, he seemed only successful about 15% of the time.
So when I say that the next action increased his accuracy of placing the tissue paper inside the cross from about 15% to about 90%, it was huge. Sometimes it just takes pausing and trying to think more like a tactile learner to figure out how to explain things to him. Instead of just telling him or pointing to the area in the cross, I told him, “Let’s trace the cross,” took his finger, and together we traced the outline of the cross. I couldn’t believe how helpful that simple action was.
Supplies:
- Construction Paper – We used black, but you could really use any dark color like red, blue, purple, black, or brown. The goal is to have a clearly visible outline.
- Contact Paper
- Tissue Paper – I bought a set of 5 colors (yellow, green, blue, pink, and purple), took one sheet of each color, and cut it into squares about an inch by an inch. You want the squares small enough that you will be able to use many per cross. They don’t have to be perfect squares.
- Scissors
- Masking Tape or Painters Tape
How to Make the Stained Glass Cross
1. If you haven’t prepped the tissue paper, this will be your first step. I took one sheet of every color that I planned to use, layered them on top of each other, and then folded them into a smaller rectangle. I then cut that rectangle into strips about an inch wide. With each strip I then cut along the folded edges and the cut the strips into inch by inch squares. It produced quite a few little tissue paper squares – far more than I needed for this craft – so I put them in a plastic baggie to save for the next stained glass project.
2. Cut the crosses out of the construction paper. I found that the best way to do this was to fold the paper in half “hot dog style” so that it is long and thin. I then cut a small square at the top and a longer rectangle at the bottom, keeping that folded edge intact. I will admit that it took me a couple of tries to perfect how far to go in from the folded edge. It really only needs to be about an 1.5-2 inches.
3. Before unfolding the cross, cut out a smaller cross so that it will only leave an outline of a cross.
4. I cut 2 sheets of contact paper per cross a little larger than the width of the construction paper. The cross will end up being between the two sheets of contact paper.
5. Using the masking or painters tape, tape down one sheet of the contact paper with the sticky side facing up. This helped keep everything in place while the kiddos put tissue paper down.
6. Lay down the cross outline onto the sticky side of the contact paper, making sure to not have any folds in the paper. Luckily, if necessary, it’s really easy to remove the paper and readjust.
7. Have your kiddo lay down tissue paper inside the cross outline. It doesn’t matter if the tissue paper squares overlap some.
8. Once all of the inside of the cross is covered in tissue paper, take the other sheet of contact paper and lay it sticky-side down on top of the cross. I started at the top edge and pulled the backing of the contact paper off as I pressed down so that the only sticky part that was showing was the section I was going to be immediately pressing down. This kept the contact paper from going rogue and sticking to itself or other parts of the cross I didn’t want it to.
9. Trim the contact paper from outside the cross and hang up to catch some sun!
This is really a craft for all ages, from young almost-toddlers to preschoolers. It’s easy enough that kiddos can make multiple crosses. We did three since there were three crosses the day Jesus died. No matter how you lay down the tissue paper, the end result will be a gorgeous cross to display in your windows.