Did you know that you can make your own gorgeous Valentine’s Day window clings? Customize the color, shape, and texture using 100% nontoxic ingredients to make the most squishy, translucent, and colorful window gel clings! In addition to making a beautiful Valentine’s Day decoration, there is plenty of Valentine’s Day STEM to learn from making these as well!
Valentine’s Day Science Activities
If you enjoy doing hands-on Valentine’s Day learning activities and you are looking for even more heart-filled fun, be sure to check out our ebook, 14 SUPER COOL VALENTINE’S DAY SCIENCE ACTIVITIES. It is jam-packed with bubbly, hands-on, colorful projects that are perfect for a Valentine’s Day party at home or at school. Click the picture below to find out more!
My favorite reason for making these squishy window gel clings is that they can be fully customizable! We have now made spring/summer window gel clings, Halloween jellies, and Christmas gel stickers. Our house looks naked without gel clings in our windows.
Valentine’s Day Window Clings
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To make our valentine gel clings we gathered these supplies:
- Four cups of boiling water (about 950 mL)
- Six packets of unflavored gelatin (about 43 grams)
- Food coloring and glitter of your choice
- Googly eyes and/or beads, if desired
- Toothpicks
- One large cookie sheet with a rim
- Cookie cutters
- Spatula
After gathering our supplies we followed these directions:
- 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), 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. 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!
For Valentine’s Day window clings we used heart cookie cutters and pink, purple, and red food coloring. We also used healthy doses of pink and purple glitter.
Valentine’s Day Gel Window Clings Science
Making valentine gel clings is a fun and creative way to spend time as a family, but there is so much to learn as well! For example, notice how the gelatin gets thicker, or more viscous, as it hardens. You will notice that the colors don’t spread as easily as the gelatin sets.
Also take notice how the heart window gel clings start off thick and squishy, but within a few days on the window they become paper thin and crusty. This is because water is evaporating from them. Making these nontoxic decorations can give children some of their first hands-on science experience!
This post was inspired by a lovely series called 14 Days of Love. Check it out to find over a dozen beautiful love-inspired activities from bloggers from all over the web!
Very pretty. We really need to have a go at some gel clings! Multicraftingmummy
Thank you!
What a fun idea! (And if it weren’t for my husband, my windows would always be filthy on the outside!)
Haha! You’ve got a good one 🙂
These are totally awesome. Who cares about the windows. You should see mine. Seriously! It would be nice if I only had time to clean the windows. Thanks for sharing this awesome craft. I’m pinning it to the Be Mine Pinterest board.
These are so cool! Thanks for linking up at the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop! We hope you join us again next week!
I have not done this yet with my girls and I can’t imagine why. Looks so crazy fun I can’t wait to try it! 🙂
This is awesome! Love the idea of using gelatin. Brilliant!
Oh what fun!! I love this and my daughter will love it too. Thanks for sharing!!
How long do these stay good?
They stay soft and squishy for 3-5 days. After that they dry out and get paper thin, but they are still pretty!
I run an art club for 10-year olds and definitely want to try this. The recipe says 4 cups of water – could you please give this in millilitres? Just to be on the safe side with differently sized cups. Thanks a lot.
Yes, of course! 4 cups of water would be roughly 950 mL. I will update this in the post as well. Thank you so much for stopping by and for asking the question.