Halloween window stickers
White glue, washing-up liquid and a splash of colour: ghosts, funny pumpkins, a witch's cat and bats that cling to the window and peel off again without leaving a mark.
Age : age 4+ with a grown-up, on their own from age 7
Materials
- Thick white glue (tacky glue) or runny school glue : No glue sticks. Thick glue makes sturdier stickers.
- Washing-up liquid : Just one drop per pot.
- Food colouring or paint: white, orange, black, yellow, green, purple : For the ghosts, glue on its own is enough: it dries a translucent white.
- Googly eyes : Or a black permanent marker, used by the grown-up.
- A clear plastic punched pocket : This is what they dry on.
- Templates drawn on paper : Ghosts, pumpkins, a cat in a hat, a bat, a moon: slide them into the pocket to trace round the outline.
- A paintbrush or a teaspoon
- A black permanent marker, for the grown-up : For the pumpkins' faces.
Steps
Session 1 · paint the ghosts
- Draw a few simple ghosts (round head, wavy bottom, 6 to 8 cm) and slide the sheet into the plastic pocket.
- In a small pot, put about 15 g of thick glue (one tablespoon), just 1 drop of washing-up liquid and 1 drop of colouring. Stir gently and leave it to rest for 3 minutes.
- With the brush, go round the outline of the ghost on the pocket first, then fill in the inside with a thick, even layer.
- Put the googly eyes on straight away, while the glue is still wet: they'll stay stuck in it.
- Leave to dry flat, away from the radiator, for 24 to 48 hours.
Level 2 · funny pumpkins
- Make a pot of orange mixture and a tiny pot of green for the stalks.
- Fill in the pumpkins in orange, then add the stalk in green, without letting it touch the orange while it's still wet.
- Once they're dry, the grown-up draws a different face on each pumpkin with the black marker: laughing, surprised, sticking its tongue out.
Level 3 · cat, bats and moon
- Get a pot ready for each colour: black for the cat and the bats, yellow for the moon, purple or orange for the hat.
- Paint just one colour on each shape first, and leave it to dry for at least 2 hours.
- Then add the next colour right up against the first: if it's still wet, the two will run together.
- For the cat's eyes, a drop of yellow on top of the black once it's dry.
Session 2 · peel and stick
- When the ghosts are see-through in the middle and no longer sticky to the touch, peel them gently off the pocket.
- Press them onto a clean window: they stay up all by themselves.
- To put them away after Halloween, stick them back onto the pocket.
Start with the ghosts (just one colour), then the pumpkins, and save level 3 for the older ones. The autumn leaves in the “Peel-off window stickers” activity use exactly the same mixture.
If it goes wrong
- The ghost tears when you peel it off : Wait a bit longer, or paint another layer on top.
- The eyes fall off : A dot of glue under each eye.
- It won't stay on the window : Clean the window and press it down nice and flat.
- The colours have run into each other : Let each colour dry before painting the one next to it.
Safety
- School glue isn't dangerous, but it's not for eating.
- Googly eyes are small parts: keep them away from children under 3.