Light Table Ideas

 I saw a post on Facebook about one family who were using strips of tissue paper on their lightbox to create patterns, weaving, colour mixing, etc.  This then inspired me, and I was off rummaging through my craft room looking for various papers suitable for the Light Table.  Tissue paper tears really easily, so I stuck a sheet of tissue paper onto Clear Contact Paper to help protect it (the clear adhesive contact paper that you use for covering schoolbooks with).  I only put the Contact Paper on one side of the tissue paper, as I like children to be able to feel the texture of paper rather than the plastic.  I then cut the tissue paper into shapes and strips.

Transparent papers (available from stationery stores and art stores, eg. Gordon Harris) are great for the light table, and they are not as fragile as paper, although they can still tear. 

Printed plastic bags are a great source for the light table.  The rectangle of purple and white polkadots below is a cut-up plastic bag.

 I cut out heart shapes for Valentines Day, to inspire transient art.  The pale pink hearts are cut from the paper that comes from florists, that flowers are wrapped in.  This paper is transparent but also waterproof and very sturdy and resilient.  I am one of those people who saves everything, even wrapping paper, so of course I had some florists wrapping paper lurking around!   I had never thought of it before in relation to the light table, but it is perfect material.  Next time you get given a bunch of flowers, save the wrapping for your light table!

The purple hearts are cut from tissue paper covered in contact paper, and the dark pink hearts are cut out of plastic packaging that a Royal Albert china ornament came in.  The packaging was wonderful - plastic with a velvet coating on it, and it had a transparent quality to it.  I cut it up into various shapes.

Coloured plastic plates and cups are perfect for the light table, and so is the cupcake packaging when you buy a pack of cupcakes in the supermarket.  The mini cupcake containers are great for sorting transparent counters.

A variety of items in use on the light table: transparent papers, plastic plates, cut up plastic bags, plastic cake packaging.

A cheap plastic tray. This tray had been sitting in my garage for quite some time and was about to be thrown out, when I thought it would be great for sand trays and making zen sand gardens.  It is also great on the light table because it lets the light through.  The tray pictured above has a mixture of sand and cornflour in it, and children can draw shapes and patterns, using their fingers, sticks, feathers... I had a few different items available on the light table to use to decorate the sand tray, including glass nuggets, pebbles, shells and branch slices.


I like to mix sand and cornflour (called Cornstarch in America) together, as the cornflour gives a nice soft texture to the sand and makes it light and smooth to work with.  I don't use specific measurements, maybe 2-3 cups cornflour to 5-6 cups of sand? I just usually chuck a pile of cornflour into a bowl and fill it up with sand from the sandpit and get the kids to help mix it.  You could add glitter to it as well.

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