I'm pretty excited about all things tissue paper, and this activity from The Imagination Tree was no exception. It also uses contact paper, which as an amazing invention, always makes my day.
First you need to gather some Valentinesy tissue paper and tear it into little pieces. We used reds, pinks, purples, which and a white one with blue sparkles to add interest. Will even helped with the tearing (and eating...they use natural vegetable dyes for these, right?).
Then you stick the paper to the contact paper. I'll let you mess around with how to do this, but basically I cut a large rectangle of contact paper, peeled off the backing, folded the non-sticky sides together, stuck the bottom to the table, taped the corners of the whole thing down and then started sticking stuff to it. Got that? Some things are easier to do than to explain. Anyway, stick stuff to half the contact paper.
Then you stick the other sticky side to the tissue paper-covered side and press it all down really firmly. Ours is a little wacky because lots of the paper was crumpled and really thick. It would probably work better if it was just one layer of tissue, but I like it wacky so there you go.
Then you cut out hearts from the tissue/contact paper sheet. I used a Stride Rite mailer as a template because it was kind of thick. My method for anything using a smallish pattern is to tape the pattern down and cut around it. (Side note: this is also my method of choice when sewing. I pin the pattern to the fabric, sew around it and then cut close to the seam.)
After I made a couple of big hearts I folded the template in half and cut away some of the paper so that I'd have a new, smaller template.
And here you have our finished stained glass hearts! In person they are lovely, and for once it's sunny here, only adding to their cheerfulness.
