Sun print for kids: fade paper in a sunny window

Art technique

Let the sun do the printing

Lay leaves, keys or stickers on coloured paper in a sunny window and wait. Sunlight slowly fades the dye everywhere except under the objects, so when you lift them, crisp darker shapes are left behind. No special chemicals: just sun and patience.

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Ages 3+
A sunny week or two
No chemicals

Painted illustration of the painter on a sunny windowsill lifting a leaf off faded blue paper, where the leaf, a key and a star left darker shapes.

Quick facts

Age

Time

10 minutes to set up, then days to weeks in the sun

Mess

None

Adult needed

Only for high windows

You need (cost)

Coloured construction paper, flat objects, tape, a sunny window

On screen / for real

Both

What you'll make

A faded sheet of coloured paper with sharp, darker shapes of whatever lay on it: a leaf, a key, scissors, a paper snowflake, your initials. It is a picture made by light, with no paint at all.

In Extreme Drawing

Time → A week in the sun (free): the page spends a week on a sunny windowsill in a few seconds.

Colours in the paper fade to roughly half their strength: reds and pinks lose the most, then yellows, while blues hold best, as real dyes do.
Wherever something was lying on the paper, the colour stays: a crisp sun print. Stencils (free) work, and so does anything thick lying on top, like a blob of ketchup. Stickers, tape, leaves and confetti (in the full toolbox) print too.
The paper yellows a little, and everything on it dries.

Try first: colour a sheet with Marker or Watercolour in several colours, lay a heart stencil and a star stencil on it, and send it into the sun. Lift the stencils and compare the colours.

Stickers and tape keep paint off, too (in the full toolbox). Stick them down first, paint over the top, peel them off: the paper underneath is clean, because whatever lies flat on the paper covers it.

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Painted illustration of the painter brushing a rainbow watercolour that bleeds into wet paper, with crayons, markers, a paint box and a child's rainbow drawing.

For real

Do it for real

No special chemicals needed. Coloured construction paper (sugar paper) is dyed with colours that fade in sunlight, so the sun does all the work. Sun-print paper kits, which are coated to turn blue, are much faster (minutes in bright sun) but need rinsing in water: follow the kit’s instructions.

You need

Dark or bright construction paper (cheap paper usually fades fastest)
Flat objects: leaves, keys, coins, scissors, card cut-outs, a paper snowflake, stickers
Tape, or a piece of clear plastic or glass from a picture frame to hold things flat
A sunny window

Step by step

Pick your paper
Dark blue, red, purple or black construction paper shows the print best. Try two or three colours to compare.
Lay out your shapes
Arrange flat objects on the paper. The flatter they are, the sharper the edges.
Hold them in place
Put the objects against the inside of the glass and tape the paper over them, coloured side towards the glass. Or lay it on a sunny sill under clear plastic.
Wait
Leave it for several sunny days; a week or two gives a strong print. In winter it takes longer.
Peel and look
Take the paper down and lift the objects off. The shapes stay darker where the sun couldn’t reach.
Keep it in the dark
Store your print in a drawer or a folder; in the sun the shapes will slowly fade too.

Variations to try

Autumn leaves

Flat, dry leaves of different shapes on red or orange paper.

Paper-snowflake print

Fold and cut a paper snowflake and use it as the shape: a winter window project for the Christmas holidays (slow in winter sun, so start early).

Holiday experiment

Set one up before you go away and see what the sun has done when you come back.

Sticker and tape resist

Stick stickers or tape on white paper, paint over the top, and peel them off for clean white shapes.

In the app vs on paper

On screen

A week passes in seconds, and the fading is always the same: reds and pinks most, blues least. Anything lying on the paper prints, even a blob of ketchup. The week in the sun, the stencils and the Kitchen are free; stickers, tape and leaves are in the full toolbox.

On real paper

It takes days or weeks, and depends on the weather, the window and the paper: some papers barely fade. Objects that aren’t flat leave fuzzy edges, because the sun moves across the sky during the day.

Why the sun fades colour

Sunlight carries energy. Day after day, it breaks up the colour in the paper’s dye, bit by bit. Where something blocks the light, the dye is safe in the shade, so it stays darker.

For grown-ups. This is photodegradation: ultraviolet and visible light break bonds in dye molecules so they stop absorbing colour. Some dyes are far more lightfast than others; in Extreme Drawing’s model the dyes that make reds and pinks are the least lightfast and blues the most, which matches many everyday dyes. An opaque object casts a shadow, so the paper under it gets no light at all. It is the same process that fades posters in shop windows. A cyanotype sun print works the other way round: light turns the coating blue where it falls.

Try next: what do you predict?

Which colour fades first?

Put strips of different coloured paper in the same window. Which one fades fastest?

See-through things?

Does a plastic bag, baking paper or a glass leave a print? What about a coin?

Through the glass?

Does it work as well inside a window as outside in the open?

How many days?

Check every day. When can you first see a difference?

For teachers

In the classroom

Sun prints fit NGSS 1-PS4-3 (placing objects made of different materials in the path of light) and KS2 Year 3 light (shadows form when an opaque object blocks the light, and sunlight can be dangerous). It makes a good long-running class experiment: start on Monday, check on Friday, and show the instant version on the whiteboard first.

Ideas for teachers Using it on the whiteboard

Questions parents ask

What paper works for a sun print?

Coloured construction (sugar) paper fades in sunlight on its own, with no chemicals. Sun-print paper kits work in minutes but need rinsing in water.

How long does a sun print take on construction paper?

A few sunny days for a faint print, one to two weeks for a strong one. Cloudy or winter weather slows it down.

Why didn’t my sun print work?

Some papers have lightfast colours that hardly fade, or the window gets little direct sun. Try cheaper, brighter paper, a sunnier window, and more time.

Which colours fade fastest in the sun?

Often reds and pinks, while many blues last longest; that is how Extreme Drawing fades them. Real papers vary, so test a few.

Is a sun print the same as a cyanotype?

No. A cyanotype uses paper coated with chemicals that turn blue in light. A construction-paper sun print works by fading dye, so the shaded shapes stay darker.

Send a page into the sun

Colour a sheet, lay a few stencils on it and choose A week in the sun. Lift them off and see what the sun left behind.

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