Heart Suncatcher Craft

There is something about kids' handmade artwork displayed throughout the house that makes me really happy.  It makes them so proud, it adds a personal and unique touch to a wall or window, and serves as a repeated reminder for me to embrace the stage we're in and find beauty in the sweet imperfections of this season.  So during our snow days last week, we spent some time at the kitchen table getting our fingers sticky from glue and learning how to cut paper hearts from folding a piece of paper in half.  Of the things we made, our suncatcher hearts were my favorite.  So much so that I'm sharing them here as an idea you might want to incorporate into your upcoming Valentine's day weekend.  These were easy enough for Mila to do, challenging enough for Cruz, and I had so much fun with them, I decided to get the supplies back out and make a few more during naps.  We made hearts for Valentine's Day, but you could use any colors and shapes you want.
 

Here is what you need...

-Various colors of tissue paper, cut into squares
-Plastic page protectors
-Scissors 
-Paint brushes
-A bottle of clear Modge Podge

Here is how they work...

1.  Cut off the edge of your page protector to make two separate sheets of plastic.

2.  Using your paint brush, spread a thin layer of Modge Podge over your plastic and begin layering with tissue paper squares.

3.  This process of covering with your tissue paper is very forgiving.  At first, we started layering our tissue paper on the Modge Podge and hardly reapplied, however, I found that if you layer a few pieces of tissue paper, then brush over them with a thin layer of Modge Podge, the tissue paper stays in place more and you get a better sense of how spread out you want the pieces to be.  I would stick on 4-5 pieces, then spread a little Modge Podge, and continue to repeat the process until the entire piece of plastic was covered with tissue paper.  

4.  After your plastic is covered in tissue paper, spread one final even coat of Modge Podge over the entire thing, make sure it is evenly coated.  

5.  This is a fun part.  After it has dried, fold the plastic in half and cut into a heart shape (the shape cutting could also happen prior to the decoupage step).  Peel the plastic protector off of the tissue paper.  It should peel off very easily.

6.  Hang on a window and admire how pretty they look when the lights shines through.