These stained glass wreaths are a simple and fun craft that young kids can make and are perfect for the winter season. You can adapt the colours and style to make these all year round, since stained glass sun catchers are awesome whatever the season!
We made these with just a few common craft supplies that we had in our kitchen and the boys had a lot of fun with them.
To make your stained glass wreath craft you will need:
- Paper plate
- Red paint (or colour of your choice)
- Some embellishments for around the edges of the wreath (we used these glitter bow stickers from Baker Ross)
- Sticky back plastic
- Coloured cellophane / coloured tissue
- Scissors
How to make your stained glass wreath
This is suitable for toddlers and upwards. Younger children are likely to need assistance with the parts that require cutting, but should otherwise be fine!
- Paint your paper plate red. You will be using the outer edge of the back of the plate, so you can just paint that section but if your little one wants to paint the whole thing anyway then why not! Leave this to dry. Sometimes it’s best to do the painting one day and come back in a day or two to complete the rest of the craft, to be sure it’s fully dry.
- Cut a hole out of the middle of the paper plate, to give a simple wreath shape. As mentioned, younger children are likely to need help with this as it can be a little tricky.
3. Decorate the outside of the wreath however you like. We used the Baker Ross glitter bow stickers as I mentioned, you just peel the back and they are self adhesive so very manageable for young children. You can work on patterns with the colours if you want to sneak in a bit of maths!
4. Once the outside of the wreath is decorated, stick the whole thing onto the sticky side of some sticky back plastic / contact paper, so that the front of your wreath is facing outwards and the middle section of the wreath is now filled with the sticky surface. Cut away the excess sticky back plastic / contact paper from around the edges of your wreath
5. Now, the kids can just stick their coloured cellophane or tissue paper onto the sticky contact paper in the middle of the wreath. We used just a few festive colours (these are supposed to be red, green and gold – it does look a little more pink in the light, but that’s okay! ). The children don’t have to be neat when sticking these down, it will still make a cool effect either way. If you have pieces of cellophane or tissue coming over the edges of the wreath then just push them all back down inside. Try to cover all of the contact paper without leaving any gaps.
Here’s how it will look from the back
7. You’re done! Hang it in the window or hold it up to the light to see the colours shine! Or, if you’re Mr R use it to look through to turn everyone rainbow coloured!
I hope you liked this simple festive craft. If you make one of these with the kids, stop by and leave me a picture on the In The Playroom facebook wall. I’d love to see 🙂
You might also like these
Winter crafts and activities for kids
- Frozen Egg Box Snow World
- Creative Christmas : 10 Snowflake Crafts
- Science for Kids: How to Make Artificial Snow
- Winter Crafts
- Snowman Craft
- Handprint Snowflake
Follow our Winter board on Pinterest
Follow Anna – In The Playroom’s board Winter on Pinterest.
More Christmas ideas
I’ve joined forces with some other wonderful bloggers to bring you more great Christmas ideas:
- Catholic Advent Crafts for Kids – It’s not too late for some Advent crafts and Dianna has lots of wonderful ideas that your children will enjoy making.
- Random Acts of Kindness: An Advent Tradition – If you’ve never carried out a Random Act of Kindness before December is the perfect time of year to get started. Colleen shares her stories and ideas as well as a free printable that you can use.
- Create a Holiday Planner that’s Right For You – If you’d like some help staying organised this Christmas you won’t want to miss this awesome Holiday Planner that Alli is sharing.
- DIY Christmas Ornaments for Boys – Who knew you could make Christmas ornaments from LEGO! Sheila has some great ideas for ornaments just perfect for boys to make, and girls will probably enjoy them too.
- Gifts in a jar: 22 simple ideas that look fabulous – Do you need some ideas for frugal Christmas gifts that look amazing? Try some of these jar gift ideas shared by Clare.
- DIY Christmas Gifts Kids Can Make – Sometimes the nicest gifts are ones that someone has made themselves, and even the children can get involved this year thanks to these great ideas from Pam.
- Kids Show How to Make Gingerbread Cookies – Baking with kids isn’t just about them having fun, they’re learning too (without even realising) about how to follow instructions, counting and measuring, developing fine and gross motor skills, and even learning a little Gingerbread history!
- Paper Plate stained glass wreath festive craft for kids – Anna’s children demonstrate how to make a gorgeous Stained Glass Wreath using a paper plate. This activity is great for all ages.
- Christmas Tree Books for Kids – December is a great time to bring new books into the house, and Cindy has a list of fabulous books all about Christmas Trees.
- DIY Kits for Kids – Emma has shared some great ideas for activities that should keep the kids entertained on a cold and wet afternoon. Perhaps just long enough for you to finish the gift wrapping!
- Gift Wrap Storage – If trying to keep your gift wrap under control drives you crazy you will not want to miss this post from Gabi.
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
We used to make those at school when I was little – they are really gorgeous 🙂
It is funny you should post this, my daughter has to make a bauble using a paper plate for school christmas competition, i had the idea of cutting the middle out and using sweet wrappers to do the same thing you have done then planned on adding an angel on top. Great Christmas wreath #minicreations
Grace says – This is so pretty and such a great idea. This will make the perfect Christmas decoration 🙂
Thanks for linking to #minicreations
What a fun process and project. I think my daughter would love to make one of these. Pinning! Stopping by from Link and Learn.
What a lovely craft – they look so pretty too. Thanks for sharing with #Playtime
Simple and beautiful – thank you for joining up with the #frugalfamilylinky
Beautiful! I’m highlighting you this week on Share it Saturday! Thanks for linking up!!
thanks so much! 🙂
Wow – these are beautiful! I think I’ll have to go hunting through the cupboard to see if we have any tissue paper left over from last Christmas!
I know we have all these materials in our craft closet! Thanks for the idea for easy entertainment!
Wow, that is really neat. Amazing what you can make from simple materials, isn’t it. Sharing!
Anna, these are fantastic and so pretty. I love that this craft is simple, yet seems like it would be so much fun!
These came out beautifully! Such a simple way to make a lovely wreath!
What a sweet idea! I can’t wait to try this with our littles!