Window Art: The Rainbow Fish and Elmer The Elephant

By Adventures and Play TeamPublished: January 26, 2016Updated: May 19, 2026

This is a slow, quiet craft built around two picture books and a pile of colored cellophane sweet wrappers I had been saving from Christmas. A sheet of clear sticky-back contact paper, a black felt-tip pen, and a kid who is happy to reach up and stick things to a window. The first round makes a Rainbow Fish stained-glass piece; the second round makes an Elmer the Elephant. Both pieces light up the patio door when the sun comes through. Ages 2 to 5.

A Pinterest-style image titled 'The Rainbow Fish and Elmer The Elephant Window Art' in black handwritten font. Top photo: a Rainbow Fish made of small cellophane pieces in pink, yellow, blue, and green, framed by a black card outline, stuck to a window with daylight behind it. Bottom photo: an Elmer the Elephant made of brightly colored cellophane squares framed by a black card outline, also lit by daylight.

What you need:

  • A roll of clear sticky-back contact paper. The cheap roll from the homewares aisle is fine. You will need two pieces about the size of a paperback book.
  • A black fine-tip felt-tip pen. Permanent ink works best on contact paper.
  • A pile of colored cellophane sweet wrappers. Saved from a tin of Christmas chocolates. The mixed colors are the point. A bag of stained-glass tissue paper from a craft shop also works if you do not have wrappers on hand.
  • A piece of stiff black card or thin black cardstock. Enough for two character outlines.
  • Scissors and a roll of masking tape.
  • A small cotton pad and a tiny dab of nail polish remover for cleaning up stray pen marks at the end. Optional.
  • A printable Rainbow Fish outline and an Elmer the Elephant outline. Any free coloring sheet of either character works as a template.

Tracing the Rainbow Fish outline

Cut a piece of contact paper a little larger than the printable Rainbow Fish outline. Lay the contact paper flat on the table, non-sticky side up. Place the printable underneath so the fish shape shows through. Trace the outline with the black felt-tip pen, pressing lightly. The contact paper takes the ink cleanly. If the felt-tip wants to bleed, slow down and let each line dry for a second before crossing it.

Two hand-traced Rainbow Fish outlines side by side on a sheet of pale graph paper. Each fish is drawn in black felt-tip pen with a curved top fin, a wide tail, two small belly fins, a face with a smile, and a single round eye. The outlines are simple and child-friendly, ready to be used as a template under contact paper.

Once the outline is dry, peel the paper backing off the contact paper. Press the sticky side flat against the inside of a window, sticky side facing into the room. Secure the corners with small loops of masking tape so it does not slip. The kid is going to be pressing into it for the next twenty minutes, so a few tape anchors are worth the setup.

A sheet of clear contact paper taped to a window with a Rainbow Fish outline drawn on it in black felt-tip pen. The fish is large, simple, and centered on the contact paper. Daylight comes through the window behind the contact paper, making the outline clear and ready for cellophane scales to be added.

Sticking the scales

Tip the cellophane wrappers out onto the floor near the window. Show the kid that the contact paper is sticky. Hand them a wrapper. Watch them figure out, on their own, that the wrapper sticks the second it touches the contact paper. Adam tested this with one piece, looked at me for confirmation, and then went after the pile.

A close-up of a pile of cellophane sweet wrappers in pink, gold, green, blue, purple, and red. The wrappers are translucent and crinkled. Some are folded over; others lie flat. They are arranged loosely on a kitchen surface ready to be cut into smaller pieces for the window art.

For the Rainbow Fish, fold each wrapper in quarters and cut a small curved scale shape. Each fold gives you four scales in one cut. Hand the scales to the kid one or two at a time. They will press them onto the contact paper inside the fish outline, overlapping happily. Overlap is the point. The colors layer up and turn into deeper hues where two wrappers cross. A two-year-old will not be precise about staying inside the outline, and that is fine. The black card frame at the end hides any overhang.

A small toddler in a red long-sleeved T-shirt stands at a window, reaching up to press a small yellow cellophane piece onto a Rainbow Fish outline drawn on contact paper. The fish is already half-covered with overlapping cellophane scales in blue, purple, and orange. The kid is concentrating, lifting onto his tip-toes.

When the fish is filled, cut a Rainbow Fish silhouette out of the black card. Use the same template you traced from. Cut around the outline, then cut out the middle so you are left with a thin black card frame in the shape of the fish. Peel the contact paper off the window, lay it flat with the sticky side facing up, and press the black card frame onto it. Stick the whole piece back on the window with the sticky side now against the glass. The black frame neatens the edges and gives the fish its line work.

A three-panel collage. Top-left: a printable black-and-white Rainbow Fish coloring outline on a black surface. Top-right: a thin black card frame cut into the shape of the same Rainbow Fish, holding the silhouette but with the middle cut away. Bottom: the finished Rainbow Fish stuck to a window, with cellophane scales in blue, purple, yellow, green, and red filling the body inside the black card frame, daylight streaming through.

For more sea creatures to color in once the window pieces are dry, our free mermaid coloring pages set covers cute mermaids for younger kids and detailed underwater scenes with fish and other sea life for older kids.

Making Elmer the Elephant

Same process, different shape, different cuts. Trace an Elmer outline onto a second piece of contact paper. Stick the contact paper to the window. For Elmer, cut the cellophane into small squares instead of scales. About half-inch squares is the right size. Elmer is a patchwork elephant in the book and the squares match the storybook texture exactly.

A small toddler in a red long-sleeved T-shirt stands at a window pressing a small red cellophane square onto an Elmer the Elephant outline on contact paper. The outline already has many cellophane squares stuck inside it in pink, yellow, orange, and green, building up a patchwork pattern. The kid's hand is pressed against the sticky surface, mid-action.

Hand the kid a small pile of squares at a time. They will press them onto Elmer’s body in overlapping clusters. The squares give the inside of the elephant a flatter, blockier texture than the curved fish scales, which is the visual point of difference between the two characters. When the body is filled, cut an Elmer silhouette out of black card, hollow out the middle, and press the black frame onto the sticky contact paper the same way as the fish. Reattach to the window with the sticky side against the glass.

A three-panel collage. Top-left: an Elmer outline with rainbow cellophane squares filling it, laid flat on a table before the black frame is added. Top-right: a hand using a small cotton pad to clean up a stray ink mark on the cellophane. Bottom: the finished Elmer stuck to a window with the black card frame around it, the squares of cellophane glowing in red, pink, yellow, green, and blue with daylight behind.

For another quiet table activity in the same age range, our free animal coloring pages set covers cute and detailed animals for younger and older toddlers, including elephants, fish, and other creatures from the same storybook universe.

Adam talked the whole way through both pieces. He named the colors as he picked them up, told me which one was for the fish and which one was for the elephant, and at one point announced that the green wrapper was specifically for Elmer’s ear. He reached up to stick the pieces on the window, then crouched down to look at the bottom edge, then reached up again. The crouch-and-stretch pattern works the shoulders and arms in a way that nothing about it feels like exercise.

A small toddler in a red long-sleeved T-shirt stands at a patio door, surrounded by several pieces of cellophane window art: a Rainbow Fish at upper left, an Elmer the Elephant at lower right, and partial outlines of more fish and elephants on adjacent glass panels. The kid is reaching up to press a piece of cellophane onto one of the pieces. Daylight streams through, illuminating all the colors.

Three completed Elmer the Elephant pieces lined up on adjacent glass panels of a patio door. Each Elmer is filled with overlapping squares of cellophane in red, pink, yellow, green, blue, and purple, framed by a thin black card outline. Daylight comes through, making the squares glow like small stained-glass panels. A driveway and a parked car are visible faintly through the panels.

A four-panel collage titled 'The Rainbow Fish and Elmer The Elephant Window Art' in black handwritten font. The panels show: the finished Rainbow Fish on a window with cellophane scales glowing in daylight; a flat-lay of an Elmer outline being filled with cellophane squares; another finished Elmer piece stuck to a window; and a small toddler reaching up to press cellophane onto a piece of contact paper on the glass.

One closing observation. The finished pieces stay on the window for as long as you can stand them. Ours lasted the rest of January and most of February before the patio door needed cleaning and we peeled them off. The cellophane was still vivid; the contact paper had not yellowed; the black card frames had a single small bend where Adam tried to pick at one corner. Worth the half-hour of saving wrappers and the half-hour of building, and worth the months of sunlight that follows.

About The Author

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