Making window gel clings is a very cute and easy way to decorate for holidays and seasons. This recipe for Halloween window clings is easy to follow, nontoxic, and can even be used as a hands-on Halloween science experiment for a classroom party!
Getting Ready
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- Four cups of boiling water (about 950 mL)
- Six packets of unflavored gelatin (about 43 grams)
- Food coloring and glitter of your choice (we used black, green, orange, and red)
- Googly eyes and/or beads, if desired
- Toothpicks
- One large cookie sheet with a rim
- Cookie cutters
- Spatula
Making Halloween Window Clings
Once we had all of our ingredients together we followed these instructions to make our Halloween gel clings:
- Add gelatin all at once to the hot water. Use a whisk to stir to make sure it all dissolves. Spoon out any bubbles.
- Pour the mixture into the baking sheet. You want it to be about a quarter of an inch thick (½ – ¾ cm). It doesn’t have to be exact, but make sure it is level.
- Once the gelatin mixture has cooled a bit (10-15 minutes), invite the kids over. Have fun dropping food coloring into the gel and swirling it around with a toothpick. For extra flare, sprinkle glitter over the top or add a few beads or googly eyes. (Obviously, these can be a choking hazard to kids who are still putting things in their mouths. Use your best judgement with your own kids!)
- You probably only have about 30 minutes before the gelatin starts to harden, so don’t dawdle!
- When you are done decorating, let the gelatin harden for at least a couple of hours. Leaving it out uncovered overnight yields the best results.
- Once it has set, use cookie cutters to cut out shapes or cut out your own shapes using a butter knife.
- Use a spatula to carefully lift the gel shapes out of the pan. Don’t worry if they tear because you can simply mold them back together on the window. Stick them onto the windows and enjoy!
Looking for more spooky Halloween window clings? Make glow in the dark window clings that are perfect for illuminating mirrors in dark rooms!
Be sure to check out our spring window gel clings and our winter/Christmas gel window clings for more inspiration all year!
More Halloween STEM for Kids
If you are looking for even MORE fun and educational Halloween activities, be sure to check out STEAM Kids Halloween! It contains 50+ pages of spooky fun STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math) activities that will wow the boredom right out of kids!
It would never have occurred to me to make my own window clings – neat idea!! thanks for linking it up to the virtual fridge!
Thank you! Love all that you have going on, too!
How do these hold up in direct sun and heat? I only want them to last a month, but I am in an area with beating sun.
That’s a great question! We always stick them in our southern facing window that gets lots of sun and they stick just fine. Portland isn’t particularly hot most of the time, though 🙂 I would love to hear how it works when you give it a try.
I’ve never tried to make these but imagine they’d feel quite unique. Adding these to my to-do list!
They do feel nice and cold and squishy! My kids always love playing in the leftovers after we get the pretty ones on the windows 🙂
This looks very fun! And effective on windows. Thank you for sharing it on Best Toys for Toddlers FB page. 🙂
Thank you! Love all the fun things you have going on as well 🙂
This is very interesting and beautiful. Thank you for sharing with us #pintorials
Thank you! They are especially beautiful in our southern facing windows during the winter-such magical reflections flood our front room 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
This is a fantastic idea. I will definitely try this out. Thank you for sharing #pintorials
So glad you like it! Give it a try and let me know how it turns out 🙂
Oh, how neat! I love the idea of making your own clings! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
Thank you! They are definitely one of our favorite activities to do each season 🙂
I may have totally missed it but is this just jello?
I guess you could say it’s a version of Jell-o! It’s made with unflavored gelatin. Edible, but not very tasty! As some sugar and fruit flavoring and you’ve got yourself some Jell-o 🙂
what a cool craft! i bet my girls will enjoy it too!
thank you for linking up with the #pinitparty
Thanks, I appreciate it!
What a great idea, I can see my kids messing with the leftovers for forever.
Yes, it’s SUCH a fun sensory experience! It’s cold and squishy, and edible, too!
This looks SOOO cool!
Thank you for linking up to the Learn and Play Link Up! This is a really great resource and we have featured you in this weeks link up!
Thank you!!
What a cute idea, I bet this recipe whould be great for all sorts of shapes.. I think I’d love to have a go at making flowers and hearts with the girls, they’d look great on their bedroom windows! Thankyou for linking this up with #busydoinglife, it’s great to have you!
What a great idea! One to add to our craft list. #busydoinglife
I thinks I’ll use this idea for making fall leaves as we decorate for the season. Thanks for the tutorial!
I bought something like this in the past, and didn’t realise it was easy to make them on our own! It’s beautiful! Thanks for sharing at Toddler Fun Friday 🙂
I would love to make these for my daughter’s Halloween Bat inspired Birthday party and give as favors. I plan to put them on transparency paper or something like it and wrap up lightly. How long will these last on the window? I read how they thin and dry, so will they last the couple of weeks through Halloween?
Hm, that may be tricky. I have never tried to transport them and I’m not sure how they will hold up. They stay squishy on the window for a few days, up to a week. After that they get thin and dry, but they still look really cool on the window and reflect the sunshine in the shape and color of the window gel. You may want to try to make them first and try transporting them like you plan to for the party and see how they hold up. If they fall apart you may want to consider making glow-in-the dark bat window gels instead? They are a lot more hardy: https://sciencekiddo.com/glow-in-the-dark-window-gel-clings/