Puffy Paint Window Clings
I wanted to get the kids involved in our fall decorating this year, so we are revisiting an activity we did a few years ago. I’ve learned a few things since then, so I’m excited to show you how easy this is to do. The best part is you can do this for any—or every!—season/holiday.
We first started buying window clings when the kids were little whenever we saw them at the store. But then they became a favorite part of our holiday decor. Even now I give them to the kids, and they decorate the dining room windows however they like. Then one day I realized we could make our own. I handed the kids some puffy paints and let them go to town. It was a lot of fun to see what they came up with. It was just as much fun this time.
You don’t need many supplies for this.
Puffy paints
Paper template (or not)
Page protector
You can always freehand your drawings with the paint, but I find it easier to use a template of some sort. You can find free clip art and other printables online for whatever you want to draw. Or you can draw your own! For fall I want lots of leaves and pumpkins. My kids wanted more Halloween than fall, so that’s what they made. My kids freehanded all of their designs, and I’m impressed! My youngest drew his on paper and then traced them with the paint.
The first time I did this with the kids, we drew our designs on waxed paper. It worked okay, but it wasn’t the best choice. Some of the clings we made were hard to pull off the paper, and they were a little hit or miss when it comes to sticking to the window. This time we used plastic page protectors, and they worked great!
So far we have only used the paint I’ve had for several years, which is Tulip brand. I’ve been using the stuff since I was actually decorating shirts and things as a tween. It’s fun to find another use for it, and apparently it lasts a long time!
Let’s do this…
To make window clings all you do is put your template inside the page protector and start painting on top of the plastic. You want to be pretty liberal with the paint so that you get a nice, thick layer. Designs that are too thin may tear when you’re taking them off of the plastic. If you’re using different colors (like the veins on my leaves or my acorns—or pretty much anything the kids did), make sure that all of your paint touches so that it all comes up in one piece. Also consider if you’re spelling out any words how it’ll look from the outside of your house. If you want someone facing your house to be able to read the message, draw your letters backward!
Waiting for the designs to dry is probably the hardest part. Isn’t that usually the case? Or maybe I’m just impatient. In any case, my paint bottles say it takes four hours to dry, but I left them overnight before we started peeling them off. In the case of really thick clings, you may need even more time than that. Some of the kids’ designs actually needed 2-3 days to dry fully, but those were really REALLY thick.
“Happy” should be reversed! 
Once they’re dry, peeling them off can be a delicate process, especially for the thinner ones. Some of my leaves were thinner than I thought, and it took me a while to carefully peel them off in one piece. The only real tip I have is to use your nail to loosen the edges, and then hopefully it’ll peel off fairly easily. A word of caution though—don’t let the clings fold over on themselves or touch each other! They stick to each other like glue. I lost the tip of a leaf because it got caught on one of my acorns. Only one could survive fully intact.
Once they’re free of the plastic, have fun sticking them to your windows! I think my kids like this part as much (if not more) as making them, and they’re already asking to make more so they can fill up the windows completely. Here’s what we have so far…
This holiday season I’ll hand over the paints and let the kids do their thing. Snowflakes and holiday wishes and whatever else they come up with!
