How to Make a Fall Leaf Sun Catcher

These fall leaf sun catchers are a beautiful way to dress up your windows for fall. With lovely stained glass colors these sun catchers will catch the clear autumn sunlight and create lovely colors and patterns inside your home. They are easy to make and children as young as three or four can create their own sun catchers with minimal adult supervision.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Black construction paper
• Colored tissue paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Hole punch
• Suction cup
• Pencil

1. 
   You can use a leaf stencil or freehand your leaf.

   Draw a simple fall leaf on the piece of black construction paper. Use the pencil because the lead will show up on the dark color. Make your leaf fairly large so that you can cut designs out of it later.

2. Cut out your leaf and patterns inside of your leaf. When you are done, you will have a black leaf outline with holes cut out of the middle. You can cut out designs that mimic the veins of real leaves or you can make fanciful shapes like hearts and stars.

3. 
   These bright colors will make a beautiful "stained glass" look for your leaf.

   Cut or tear the colored tissue paper into pieces no more than about 1-inch square. The squares do not have to be exactly measured, but they do need to be relatively small.

4. Glue the colored tissue paper to the back of the black leaf. The colors should show through the cut outs in the leaf. Keep gluing until the back of the leaf--including the cutouts--are completely covered.

5. Thread a loop string through a hole in the top of the leaf. You can use the scissors to make a small hole for the loop or you can use the hole punch.

6. Hang your leaf on the window using the suction cup. When the sun hits your sun catcher creation, it will light up.

Tips & Warnings

• More advanced artists may wish to decoupage the tissue paper onto a piece of wax paper using glue mixed with opalescent glitter. Then cut the waxed paper out to fit behind the black outlines of the leaf. This will add extra sparkle to the project and make it more interesting for older children.