DIY Window Gel Clings

Window gel stickers? Window jellies? Window gels? I really don't know what they are called, but my kids love them. How would you like to make your own gel clings that are not only cute, but also edible? I thought so.

Now before you think I have gone too artsy on the Science Kiddo, just stay tuned. There is a ton of science your kids can learn from this in addition to it being a great creative outlet and fun activity for you to do as a family.

It's really simple and only takes a few ingredients. Our window jellies turned out beautiful and fun, just in time to catch the sun's warm spring rays in our window.

Total Time: About 10 minutes to prepare, 20 minutes to color, 10 minutes to cut out with some waiting time between each step
Safety Concerns: You will need to boil water for this. Just watch your kids around hot water and the resulting hot gelatin. Let it cool a bit before your kids get close.

Materials You Need:

Four cups of boiling water
Six packets of unflavored gelatin
Food coloring and glitter of your choice
A toothpick
One large cookie sheet with a rim or two 9 x 13 casserole dishes
Cookie cutters
Spatula


Directions:

• Add the gelatin to the hot water. Stir to make sure it all dissolves and spoon out any bubbles.
• Pour your mixture into you cookie sheet or casserole dishes. You want it to be about half an inch thick. It doesn't have to be exact, but it is best if it is level. Bowls won't work very well since the gelatin won't be a uniform depth.
• Once gelatin is cooled a bit (10-15 minutes), have fun dropping food coloring into your gel and swirling it around with your toothpick. Sprinkle it with glitter if you desire. You probably only have about 30 minutes before the gelatin starts to harden!

• Let the gelatin harden. It should only take 30-60 minutes, but you can leave it out overnight if you desire. Since it's super-concentrated it hardens quickly without being in the refrigerator. We usually leave our gelatin over night and cut it out in the morning because it seems to stay together a bit better that way.
• 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 lift your gel shapes out of the pan. Don't worry if they tear because you can simply mold them back together. Stick them to your windows and enjoy!

Print These Instructions

*Please Note: I have had some readers say their gel clings were too wet or heavy and didn't stick to the window. If this happens to you, simply leave your pan of gelatin out uncovered overnight and try again in the morning. If they are still too heavy, leave them again until the next day. Each day, water evaporates out of the gelatin, making it stickier and lighter, thus more likely to stick to your window!

Easy, right? One thing I love about decorating the gelatin is that it is much more viscous, or thicker, than water. This means that you can decorate each corner differently and the colors/glitter won't run into each other. You can customize the colors and shapes for whatever holiday or season you want!

If you want to incorporate more science into this activity you could pour some water into a pan, drop colors into it, and compare how it behaves differently from the gelatin mixture. Then do the same thing with vegetable oil. (We did this in our Color Bombs experiment.) You could also observe how your window gels evaporate after a few days on the window, leaving behind paper-thin dry shapes.

Note: You probably won't be able to take these jellies off your window and put them back on more than a few times before they tear beyond repair. They are slightly more delicate than the window gels you buy at the dollar store.

Thanks for the great idea, Kitchen Pantry Scientist! 

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