DIY Tutorial : Stained-Glass/Kaleidoscope Cut-outs

In making some of these for fall, I was reminded that I meant to write up this tutorial to share back when we made them for Valentines Day this year! Oops! Better late than never though!  

I've grown up making these with the family and it's such a simple project that can be adapted for any holiday, season or event. So pull out your crayons and iron and lets get melting!

Materials:

wax paper | your old and broken crayons | a pairing knife or veggie peeler | old towel |

 iron | scissors | cookie cutters

optional: hole punch and ribbon

Step one: Make crayon shavings using your pairing knife or veggie peeler

Step two: Lay a sheet of wax paper on your ironing board. Make small groupings of your crayon shavings-- the more sparse your shavings, the more of a see-through effect you'll achieve in the end. Lay a second sheet of wax paper on top of the shavings. Now lay the old towel on top of everything.

Step three: Press your iron on top of the towel, paper and crayon shavings. Don't leave it on long though! Press. Lift. Check the melting process. Repeat until shavings are melted. Carefully turn the two sheets of wax paper over and repeat ironing process to melt other side.

Step four: lay your cookie cutter on top of the melted crayon and trace the shape onto the wax paper. 

Step five: Now for the tricky part. VERY carefully cut the shape out. The crayon may threaten to fall out of the wax paper but try to keep it in!

Step six: When your shape is cut out, lay it on top of the old towel. Very gently and lightly run the tip of the iron along the edges of the cut out to seal them. 

 

 Step seven: This is an optional step-- If you want to hang your cutouts in the window to achieve the full stained-glass effect, punch a hole in the cut-out and hang with ribbon.