"stained glass"

kid projects chez stitch usually go one of 2 ways:

1) the "can we make one of those?" project (usually a response to a telly make): give M a pile of supplies and the messy tablecloth, hide self behind lappie with a coffee, sum total of my involvement being an "oh yes lovely sweetheart" or perhaps some cutting out.

2) the mission critical project (e.g. xmas cards): hover over M with gritted teeth trying to explain medium-specific conventions e.g. inside and outside of a card, how it needs to fit in an envelope etc. failing dismally to balance artistic freedom with the production of a usable end product and everyone becoming more and more fraught.

happily this project was none of the above, perhaps heralding a new era of kid concentration/ability approaching a balance with mama perfectionism :D this was a true collaboration. we spotted the foil tray at nanny's and i suggested cutting out the indentations and backing them with sweet papers (dada manfully helped out on the acquiring-sweet-wrappers front). i cut the windows and M directed me in cutting and placing the papers. trying to keep the glue out of the window spaces was beyond her and she shares some of my perfectionist traits and gets frustrated when she can't get it how she thinks it should be and refuses to go on.

she was very specific about having one colour per window even though i tried to encourage her to see how the different colours interacted when they were overlapped. but once the windows were done she decided we had to use up the spare bits by cutting into thin strips. again she directed me with great precision in placing each piece. the glittery bows were just because :)