Recyle Wax Paper Waste into Beautiful Window Decorations

Hello everyone! If you recall, I recently posted a tutorial for creating pretty flowers out of decorated coffee filters. (If you missed that tutorial, you may want to check it out!)

One of the waste products generated by the coffee filter flower project is a set of colored wax paper. I sometimes think the wax paper is even more stunning than the flowers. I couldn’t throw this very cool looking paper away- I just had to do something with it!
Since the wax paper is somewhat transparent, I decided to use this “waste” to create window decorations! This is another super-easy project (because easy is the ONLY way to do things in Kindergarten!) I would recruit a parent volunteer to cut the frames. All other work is done by my kinders.

Take your beautiful wax paper and just set it aside for a bit. You’ll need it later.

Begin by making frames for your window decorations. You can do any simple shape. I chose to do butterflies, flowers, and hearts. For a whole class activity, I like to keep it simple and just do 1 basic shape.

Apply a thin line of white glue all the way around the frame.

Place the frame onto the most colorful section of the wax paper. Figuring out the best location for the frame is a great thinking exercise!

Use scissors to gently cut around the frame and remove excess wax paper (yup-my kids do this part too).

Hang completed decorations in the window.

I know how much you like templates, so I created some to share. They are a little rough, but should help you to create some frames of your own. Click the image to the right to download. I recommend printing the templates onto cardstock so you have something sturdy to cut out and trace around. Find construction paper that you like, fold it in half, and trace the desired frame on the fold. Cut the image out that you traced (while keeping the construction paper folded). Open the object after it has been cut out and you will have a frame that is ready for the wax paper!

Happy Crafting!