Fall Color Stained Glass Suncatcher Crafts for Kids

Over the summer I discovered colored pasta and how pretty it is as a craft material. Inspired by a stained glass pasta craft by Babble Dabble Do, Sweet Pea and I concentrated on fall colors and had a blast making these beautiful stained glass crafts for kids. Read on to see how easy these suncatchers are to create!

fall color stained glass crafts for kids

Fall Color Stained Glass Suncatcher Crafts for Kids

Materials Needed:

  • Food coloring (red and yellow, possibly orange)
  • Flat Pasta Lasagna
  • Rubbing Alcohol
  • Plastic gloves
  • Gallon size Ziploc bags
  • Black Sharpie
  • Contact Paper
  • Black Cardstock or Foam sheet
  • Scissors
  • Painter’s Tape

How to Make the Stained Glass Suncatchers

  • Well, first you get to actually make the colored noodles. You can read detailed instructions for how to do that here. I was not able to find orange food coloring, so I mixed the yellow and red until I got the desired color.
  • Sweet Pea loved to help me break the pasta noodles into pieces and put them in the Ziploc bags.

fall color stained glass crafts for kids

  • Depending on the age of your kids, you may want to actually color the noodles yourself. Also… I did not wear plastic gloves. That was an error in judgment because food coloring is super difficult to get off of hands. So, note to self– wear gloves to dye the pasta.
  • After the pasta is dyed and dried, you can make the actual stained glass suncatcher. To get set up, transfer the pasta to a bowl or container.

fall color stained glass crafts for kids

  • Cut two sheets of contact paper to the desired size. It isn’t necessary for them to be exactly the same, but they should be relatively close in size. Also, cut the contact paper sheets larger than you think you will need so that there is room for overlap and trim.
  • Peel one of the sheets and tape it to your working surface with the sticky side up.
  • Depending on the age of your child, either let them arrange the pasta pieces by themselves. Or, if you have younger children, you may need to help with this part. Sweet Pea was engaged for about 10 minutes and then she just wanted to play with the pasta, so I finished the suncatchers for her.

fall color stained glass crafts for kids

  • Once your pasta pieces are arranged the way you prefer, peel the second sheet of contact paper on top and press around the edges, and in between the pasta pieces themselves in order to seal the suncatcher.
  • Anna at Babble Dabble Do suggests spraying the bottom sheet of contact paper with spray adhesive. I would highly recommend this step. Even with the press and seal, our stained glass pieces still shifted around once we hung up the suncatcher.

fall color stained glass crafts for kids

  • Use the black sharpie to color in between the spaces left by the pasta pieces. This is what gives the stained glass the look of a window.
  • Next, cut out a frame from the black cardstock or foam sheet. The easiest way to do this is cut out/measure out a piece of cardstock or foam that is approximately the same size as the contact paper sheets. Fold it in half and then cut out a rectangle in the center, leaving a thin black frame. If you want, you can cut out two matching ‘frames.’ However, we didn’t and once the stained glass suncatchers were hung, you couldn’t even tell the frame was one-sided.

And that is it! Pretty cool, right?

fall color stained glass crafts for kids

Thanks for checking out this craft and have a great week!
Sara

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