Fall Sun Spiral

My girls love anything you can hang from trees.  They love wind chimes, sun catchers, and wind socks.  Tottie and I had some time together this morning before preschool so I thought it would be fun to make a fall sun spiral with her.  When it was finished and hanging on the tree, she was so excited to watch it twirl around and catch the light!

To make your own fall sun spiral you need:

• Clear contact paper (2 pieces, equal sizes)
• Small leaves you find on the ground
• Glitter
• Any other flat, small decorations you may want (we used foam shapes)
• Sharpie
• Scissors

1) You'll start by drawing a spiral on one piece of your contact paper.  Make sure it is on the contact paper side and not the backing side.  Also make sure your lines are wide enough apart to fit your leaves in between them and have a bit of room left.

2) Next, peal the backing off the contact paper and add the leaves, glitter, and other decorations to the sticky side.  Make sure to keep the decorations inside the lines or you'll end up cutting them later.

3)  Take your second piece of contact paper and use it to cover the first piece, sticky side to sticky side.  Press down all over the papers to seal the edges and as much of it as you can.  Pay close attention to trying to seal the lines.  

4)  Cut along the lines.  (Look how determined Tottie is to get it right!)  Remember to cut off the excess contact paper at the beginning of your spiral and to leave a circle in the middle of your spiral.

5)  Punch a hole in the middle of the circle at the end of your spiral and use string to hang it from a tree.  Have fun watching it twirl around and catch the light!

Tottie had so much fun making the first fall sun spiral that she wanted to make a bigger one to hang on our door inside!  Though I tried to tell her it wouldn't twirl like the first, she was determined to do it anyway.

Do your kids like to make things to hang from trees?