{ Earth Sun-Catcher Craft }

Last week, we did this cute flower sun-catcher with contact paper. Lore really enjoyed doing the craft with contact paper; it’s sticky and way less messy than wax paper and glue. It made doing the craft a breeze! I think the hardest part was getting the backing off of the contact paper… talk about frustrating! LOL! Don’t be intimidated by the instructions below… it’s actually really simple and straight-forward!

What You’ll Need:

• Contact Paper – two equal pieces clipped
• Black Construction Paper
• Pen
• Scissors
• Tissue Paper – blue and green

What You Do:

1. First, you’ll need to cut the holes out of the black construction paper. I recommend getting something round to trace (I used a lid). Stack the two pieces of paper, put the lid (or whatever) on top and trace it. Be sure to press HARD so the impression will go to bottom piece of paper as well.
2. Cut out the inside of the circles and discard the clippings.
3. Now, hang your first sheet of contact paper up. If you have a large window or sliding glass door, that would be best. We don’t, so I hung ours up on Lorelai’s easel. It’s not as great, but it still works! Make sure you hang it sticky-side out!!
4. Place one of the black construction papers (with the hole cut out) onto the contact paper.
5. Cut your tissue paper into squares. Do this by folding it over a few times and cutting!
6. Have your child decorate the inside of the circle (the Earth) with blue and green construction paper. I had Lorelai draw blobs onto ours with a marker. She then filled them in with green (earth) and then filled in the empty spots with blue (water).
7. When finished, peel off the other contact paper lining and press the other construction paper to it. Then gently lift it to the contact/tissue paper earth and press it. Be sure to line the two circles up perfectly so there will be no overlap.
8. Rub out any wrinkles.
9. At this point, you will want to trim off the excess. I did about an inch border on our earth, but more would be good too! You could decorate the black part with star stickers.

NOTE: This is just one way to do this. We’ve done sun-catcher crafts with contact paper and construction paper that are similar to the wax paper/glue. You cut the holes out of the construction paper, then stick the contact paper INSIDE so that it just a contact paper window. Add your tissue paper, then stick the sheets together. The construction paper will be on the outside. That way is good too, but the way I described in this craft is fine for this craft; I just wanted the construction paper to be a border, so it didn’t really need to be on the outside.

I hope you get a chance to do this craft with your child. It’s a great way to celebrate Earth Day and get creative!

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