Stained Glass with Gelatin

Yes that is right, I said stained glass with GELATIN!  I saw these super easy and fun stained glass shapes in the April issue of Family Fun.  They could not have been any easier to make, and they were great fun with my 5 year old daughter.  The (simplified) instructions from Family Fun were as follows:

1.  Boil 3 tablespoons water.
2.  Add 1 envelope unflavored gelatin and a few drops of food coloring

3.  Stir slowly until combined (if you stir too fast, you will get air bubbles)

4.  Pour mixture onto a 9-inch plastic plate (we used a paper plate covered with plastic wrap, it created some wrinkles, but they added interest)

5.  Sprinkle with glitter, if desired

6.  Set aside until completely dry

7.  Once dry, cut into desired shapes (we only got 1 shape per plate, because the edges were pretty thin)

8.  Poke a hole at the top and hang in a window with fishing wire (or ribbon ,or string, or whatever you have around the house)

9.  Step back and enjoy your handiwork :)

Some other notes: 

*  Make sure you do not remove your stained glass from the plate until it is completely dry.  If you remove it too soon, it will stick to EVERYTHING and will not be easy to cut.  You will know it is done when it is like hard plastic.  It took a couple of days for ours to completely harden.

*  If you find that your stained glass curls, put it between 2 pieces of parchment paper and put it under something heavy (we used a case of paper, nothing else seemed to work for us)

Here is what they looked like close up: