Make homemade window clings with two simple household ingredients: white school glue and food coloring.
Looking for an oh-so simple craft and decoration project to do with your kids? Well, this is it! Make homemade window clings.
When my sister told me about this, saying something about how our mom used to do it when we were kids, I was somewhat skeptical. She’d never tried it with her kids, but she seemed fairly confident that it would work, so I tried it.
You can make your own window clings! Better yet, you can let your children have free reign to make all kinds of designs that can be hung on your windows. Right now you can focus on themes of Easter and spring. In a few months, throw up some summer shapes. Fall? Winter? Christmas?
The options are endless. Especially when the craft takes little more than three materials.
How to Make Homemade Window Clings:
Supplies:
- white school glue
- food coloring
- clear plastic like a file folder or report cover
Directions:
- Add a few drops of food coloring to a bottle of Elmer’s school glue. Cap and mix well. You might have to shake or massage the bottle. Or just let gravity do its work and go with the ombre effect.
- Draw designs with the colored glue on the clear plastic. Remember that the colors may bleed if you mix them and that the glue may spread on the plastic.
- Lay the plastic on a flat surface and just walk away. Allow the glue to dry completely. Do not disturb.
- Once the glue is dry, you can peel it off the plastic and position it on your favorite window.
The glue will dry darker than it is when wet.
These are a super fun and simple activity to do with your kids. Let imaginations run wild. Since school glue goes on sale for about a quarter a bottle come July, you should be able to keep yourself stocked for this craft anytime.
DIY on a Dime
This is part of the DIY on a Dime: Easter. For more easy and frugal ideas for celebrating the holiday, check out the list.
A Tangled Birthday Cake Idea
TGIF: Pattern Blocks
Get Out: Play Hopscotch
5 Great Cakes to Make Yourself
Personal Cherry Crumbles
I love this idea, thank you! I plan to craft today doing this with the children I care for.
Too cute! I just pinned it and plan to do it with my kids this week!
I wonder if you can make these more detailed with a paintbrush? And couldn’t you use different colors if you let it dry between applications, like working with watercolors?
My kids are going to love this!
Yep, I think that could work. Just be patient, and lay the glue on kind of thick. It will take some time to dry, but thicker is better.
I tried these with my Sunday School kids. We made them in a stained glass cross pattern. They turned out very brittle, and most cracked before they could be enjoyed. Any suggestions?
I’m going to guess that the glue wasn’t thick enough. We had to coat it pretty well. Thinner spots will be brittle. The thick spots take quite awhile to dry.
Try the following:
12 gauge wire and form it into a complete circle connecting the ends by twisting them together.
Lay it on the plastic and flatten
Fill it with the cling glue making sure the glue touches the wire and fills in the circle. You may need to use a small paint brush, popsicle stick or something like that to be sure the circle is completely filled in.
When project is completely dry you could make shapes that you can bend to stand. You could even form them next to each other to make abstracts.
(Smaller gauge covered wire sold by the foot at hardware and home improvement stores would make neat flowers. Shape the wire into flower shapes.)
does the food dye stain the plastic? I am hesitant to use the dry erase covers that we have available (like your sin the photo actually) with anything that might color it…
It did not leave any marks on our plastic.
Thank you so much – when I was a kid we used to make fake fingernails this way, minus the food color. That was long forgotten until I read your article
Does the glue melt and stain the windows? Just wondering, this is an adorable idea anyway.
We’ve never had that problem, but we also don’t live where it gets very hot. If you live in Arizona or Texas, I’m not sure what to tell you. Sorry!