Window Clings

I've been playing around with WindowColor lately (anything to get away from those evil knitting needles!), making faux stained glass butterflies:

and owls:

Woo-hoo!
It's funny how little this craft is known in the United States. Walk through a typical suburban neighbourhood in Germany and the windows on many, many houses are plastered with self made window clings - kids' stuff like cartoon characters or animals, and seasonal stuff like jack-o'-lanterns or snow flakes. There's gazillions of German craft web sites out there with free patterns (although, if you just keep your eyes open, you'll find inspiration almost anywhere). I only "discovered" WindowColor for myself after I moved to the U.S. and was happy to find the paint bottles in stores like Michaels and HobbyLobby, even WalMart.

The cool thing is that you need little talent and little supplies - you simply trace a pattern with liquid leading on clear plastic sheets with the pattern underneath *a sheet protector will do*, creating an outline. Then you fill in the spaces with the paint bottles. No brush needed, just squeeze out paint with the bottle tip and spread it out within the leading lines. It'll harden to a thick plastic-like texture within several days, then you can peel it off the sheet and stick it to your windows, tiles, glass doors etc. Of course, it's removable and can be stored (e.g. in a ziploc baggie or inside a sheet protector) if you're tired of it. Just don't let it come into contact with itself (it'll stick to itself) or with paper (paper will stick to it, too).

Both leading and paint bottles are about 2 bucks each. *Silly German accent on* Go! Paint! Now! *Silly German accent off*