Ensure your lids are clean and dry, place on parchment paper with food colouring and toothpicks ready to go.

Add 75mL of water and 3 gelatin packets (or 3 tablespoons of gelatin powder) to the pot and place over medium-low heat. Whisk together as it heats until completely mixed. Once the mixture starts to steam and thicken a bit, remove it from the heat.

Using a spoon gently scrape the foamy layer off and discard. If you don’t remove all the foam now it will cause some cloudiness in your final plastic. The better you are at removing the foam, the more clear your final plastic will be. And with suncatchers we want our plastic to be as clear as possible!

Pour the mixture into the lids. Add a few drops of food colouring. I found liquid food colouring worked the best. Gel was very dark and didn’t mix as well. Using a toothpick make designs by swirling the colours through the mixture. You can swirl together two or three different colours.

Work efficiently, it will start to thicken and set up quite fast.

Let the mixture set up for 24 hours.

After 24 hours it will be very rubbery. Use a knife to seperate the plastic from the edges, then carefully remove it from the lid and place on parchment paper to continue hardening. If you place another sheet of parchment paper, then a book, over the plastic while it is hardening, it will keep them from curling. We didn’t mind the curling, it gave the pieces character. So the choice is yours.

Let them set for another 24 to 48 hours until hard.

Using glue or tape, add a loop of string to the back for hanging.