Window Art

Materials:

Glue (Best to use a clear glue... elmers clear, modge podge, rubber cement)

Assorted gems/tiles etc

Picture frames (ours were purchased at Dollar Tree)

Foam Brush

The Invitation

I put the light box out, but this does NOT have to be done with light.  My daughter just chose to do it this way.  

Assorted gems.  

These were all purchased at the dollar store except the two cups on the left and right hand side.  Those are translucent tiles that were purchased HERE  The tray was also purchased from Dollar Tree.  

Assorted picture frames... purchased at Dollar Tree

Take the backing off the picture frame and just leave the glass.  

Dumping the glue.  

Spreading it out. 

Placing on gems

We placed the gems on so you can see the front of the frame. However, if you want your objects behind or in front of the glass is up to you. For the gems we did them in FRONT of the glass. We did this for two reasons. 1. I wanted the girls to be able to feel/touch their creations. 2. The dollar store frames are not the thickest/best quality in the world. A few of the gems were bigger than the actual thickness of the frame. I wanted the hanging to be flat up against a window/wall. 

A few pictures down, you will see some leaves we did.  Those are BEHIND the glass.

Also, if you are going to hang them on the wall you can just leave the backing on if you don't want a see-trough effect. 

Finished.  

My daughter used a TON of glue.  You do NOT need to use this much.  The thinner the application the better the translucent result.  Also, these were originally done with white elmers glue.  A clear glue will give you the best result.  

By the end of the day we ended up doing SIX of these!  My daughter loved it.  :-)  

We used translucent tiles/gems etc because I plan on hanging these up in the window.  You do not have to use something translucent.  You can also just do a plain mosaic to hang on the wall (keep the backing on).  Put your own creativity into it and work in your child's interests.   You can even just paint on the glass if you really want to (see my youngest's painting below)!  So many different options for this.  It also makes it very easy to display the artwork!   :-)

She later on asked to use leaves.  We didn't have any dried leaves handy so we ended up pulling these off one of the plants in the play room.  If you use decoupage glue or modge podge it will work great with dried, pressed leaves.  Not only will it preserve your leaves, but it would create a wonderful window hanging.  When the leaves start changing color around here we definitely plan on doing this again!  

AK's son did this one.  This was completely child guided.  HE CHOSE to use the halloween gems.  :-)  Halloween gems were purchased at Michael's Craft Store.  

My 19M old daughter would rather paint... so we painted.  This is acrylic paint.  

I superglued suction cups onto the back of the frame to hang them on the window.   

 This was a total experiment for us. Still learning! Next time we will use a clear glue. These were done with white elmer's glue... so you can see the results we got.  We have created quite a few more since this post.  I will post more pictures with our new results.  :-)  

My daughter couldn't wait to hang them up!  

Here some we have been working on the past week or so.  :-)  

Clear Elmer's glue on left.... regular Elmer's glue on right.  Big difference!  

Keep in mind the heavier the object you put on/the bigger the frame... the heavier the picture is going to be.  You may have to adjust your hanging method.  

RL