We love making colourful sun catchers. Whatever the time of year, it’s always beautiful to see the light streaming through brightening up the room and sun catchers can be a really easy and quick craft for kids to have fun making.
We made these Christmas Ornament Sun Catchers in a couple of different styles. You can adapt them to whatever style or colour scheme you and your children prefer.
To make these Christmas Ornament sun catchers we used this Bauble Stained Glass effect decorations pack
You can get a pack with 6 templates for £3.96 or 24 for £14.88 which includes the black card templates, coloured cellophane, and ribbon to hang.
We adapted some of the designs by adding our own shiny silver card too, to fill in some of the star designs in the template.
How to make the Stained Glass effect Christmas Ornament Sun catchers
Take your template, you will need two black cards with the same design, and press out all of the spaces within the design, leaving just the outline
Carefully lay your coloured cellophane in place over each section of the template. Older children may choose to carefully cut each piece and give a different colour to every small section, whereas smaller children may work more roughly and randomly – but that’s fine! It still looks pretty once it’s finished.
My 3 year old Mr R made these with me, and my older boys (5 and 6) always enjoy this craft too. It’s fun for all ages and can be adapted to each skill level.
For the younger ones its a chance to talk about colours and shapes, to explore colour mixing when placing two pieces of coloured cellophane in an overlapping design, and a good chance to work on cutting and gluing which helps with fine motor development.
One the design is placed onto one side of your Christmas ornament template, then it’s time to apply glue to the other side and then carefully place this down on top to secure the design.
Make sure the glue is applied liberally so that it sticks down firmly. We have also made similar sun catchers secured by tape (see our butterfly and bird sun catchers here). That also works, so you can use whatever you have available.
Because Mr R is quite young, he found it easier to stick down the two sides first, and then cut away the excess cellophane which came out from the sides. Younger toddlers might need an adult to help out with this but 3-4 years and older would be able to have a go at cutting this excess away by themselves. You can also cut it before sticking down the other side of the template but this way will ensure the colour covers right up to the edges.
Once its finished, hold it up to the window and see the colours shining in the sun light! Even on a dull winter day, you will still see this effect.
For a change, we decided to add some shiny silver card to some of our other templates to try a different effect.
This was made in the same way as shown above. The light won’t shine through the silver card of course, but the combination of shiny silver and of blue and purple with the sun light shining through did look pretty especially for a Christmas decoration.
As you can see, Mr R was quite pleased with them 🙂
You might also like these
Sun Catchers for Kids to Make
- ‘Stained Glass’ Bird and Butterfly Sun Catchers
- Stained Glass Style Owl Sun Catcher
- Stained Glass Wreath Festive Craft for Kids
Christmas Ornament Crafts for Kids
- Colour and Design your own Christmas Ornaments Printables
- TMNT Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtle Christmas Ornaments
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.
I can remember making these when I was a child using sweet wrappers (a good excuse to eat a few more sweets!)
These look wonderful!
Such pretty ornaments! You could make a whole garland and put it in the window. I’m adding it to my Christmas ornament pinterest stash.
These are beautiful! We have done tree suncatchers, but I love the stained glass look of these!
Hi I am visiting from How To Get Organized At Home, I just wanted to say thank you for visiting and sharing your article. I used to make these when my children were little, thank you for sharing.
Love these – so cute!!
Take your template, you will need two black cards with the same design, and press out all of the spaces within the design, leaving just the outline