Stained Glass Coloring Pages

Stained glass earns its look from the lead, not the color. A real window is built from small pieces of colored glass held inside H-shaped lead channels called cames, and those dark seams are what your eye reads as stained glass before it registers a single hue. A coloring page works in this style when it copies that structure, so the panels here are built from closed outlines that divide the sheet into separate cells. Line weight varies across the collection. The window and geometry sheets carry the heaviest leading, and several of the flower and animal panels set finer drawing inside a leaded frame. These 50 stained glass coloring pages download as free printable PDFs sized for US Letter paper, 8.5 by 11 inches.

What Is in the Collection

Windows and architecture. These are the form everyone pictures. Rose Window With Petal Sections and Outer Medallions splits a circle into radiating petal sections ringed by outer medallions, the shape Chartres and Notre-Dame made famous in the 13th century, and Circular Rose Window With Radiating Diamond Panes cuts the same geometry into larger panes. Gothic Cathedral Window With Pointed Arch and Stone Tracery stacks narrow panels under a pointed arch and fills the head with stone tracery, while Tall Lancet Window With Layered Border Panels sets the same arch inside stacked borders. Spoked Wheel Window in Leaded Glass radiates two rings of wedge lights from a plain hub, Sun and Moon in a Leaded Glass Arch Window sets a rayed sun face opposite a crescent inside a full grid of lights, and Sunburst Panel With Concentric Glass Rings works the same radial idea in wider rings.

Geometry and ornament. Geometric Diamond Lattice Stained Glass Panel repeats one diamond cell across a regular grid, about 150 of them, so it is quick to plan and long to finish. Hexagon Honeycomb Lattice Glass Panel interlaces hexagons and rings so the overs and unders can be colored to weave. Celtic Knot Roundel in Leaded Glass braids four lobes through each other, Art Nouveau Vine Scroll Glass Panel answers with symmetrical whiplash stems and corner roundels, and Nautilus Shell Spiral in a Round Glass Medallion grows its chambers outward in an orderly progression that suits a graded palette. Six Lobed Rosette in an Oval Block Border Glass Panel sets two pointed teardrops and four leaf lobes around a central boss, then rings them with an oval of short blocks laid end to end like brickwork.

Flowers and plants. Glass studios favored these subjects for the same reason the pages do: the shapes break into flat sections without losing what they are. Tulip Panel in a Three Part Stained Glass Window, Sunflower Stained Glass Panel With Radiating Petal Cells, Water Lily Pond Stained Glass Panel and Climbing Rose Vine in an Arched Glass Panel are the classics. Poppy Heads in a Leaded Glass Border Panel rings each blossom with bead cells, Magnolia Branch in an Arched Glass Panel sets two broad blossoms under a fan cut arch, and Thistle Head and Leaf Scrolls in a Square Glass Panel builds its head from rows of overlapping bracts. Grapevine With Fruit Clusters in an Arched Glass Panel draws every grape as its own circle, Fern Fronds in a Narrow Glass Panel steps small leaflets up two matched lights, Lotus Blossom on Still Water in a Square Glass Panel layers pointed petals over banded water, Wisteria Hanging in a Tall Leaded Glass Panel packs two falling clusters with small petal cells, and Holly Sprig and Berries in a Round Glass Medallion spreads spined leaves out like spokes. Iris Blossom in a Tall Glass Panel gives one bloom the whole center light, framed by four corner rosettes and two tall empty side strips, and Daisy Ring in a Round Glass Medallion sets fourteen blossoms in a wreath around a plain open center.

Birds. Hummingbird and Trumpet Flower Stained Glass Panel, Peacock With Fanned Tail in a Leaded Glass Frame and Dove in Flight Above a Bordered Glass Arch treat the bird as a set of glass pieces, which is exactly how Tiffany studios handled them. Cardinal on a Berry Branch in a Square Glass Panel stands against brick cut glass, Owl Perched on a Branch in a Round Glass Medallion sits inside three rings of background cells, Swan Gliding on Water Cells in an Arched Glass Panel keeps its body open under a fan cut arch, and Swallows in Flight Above a Patterned Glass Border Band puts a deep lattice band under the birds.

Other animals. Butterfly With Sectioned Wings in a Square Glass Panel is the most strictly mirrored of the animal sheets, with Dragonfly Over Reed Stalks in a Tall Glass Panel closest behind it, both wing pairs opened flat above four upright reeds. Koi Pair Nose to Nose in a Round Glass Panel brings its two heads together at the top of the roundel and its tails together at the bottom, though the scale rows and the wave cells behind them are drawn differently on each side. Cat Curled Asleep in a Round Glass Medallion is the opposite case, a single unbroken body laid against a wedge cut ground. Seahorse Among Kelp Ribbons in a Tall Glass Panel bands its whole body in rings, Honeybee on a Hexagon Comb Glass Panel fills the panel edge to edge with comb, and Fox Standing in a Round Glass Medallion, Stag With Branching Antlers in an Arched Glass Panel and Rabbit Sitting Among Clover in a Square Glass Panel give you open bodies against worked backgrounds.

Landscape and sky. Mountain Sunset Landscape in Stained Glass Cells breaks two peaks and a rippled lake into narrow bands. Lighthouse Above Wave Cells in a Tall Glass Panel bands its tower and its sky, Sailboat on Layered Water Cells in a Square Glass Panel leaves both sails completely blank, Cactus and Desert Hills in a Square Glass Panel sets a ribbed saguaro against a low sun, Crescent Moon and Stars Above a Pine Forest Glass Panel crowds its sky with pointed stars, and Hot Air Balloon Above Cloud Cells in a Tall Glass Panel divides its envelope into long tapering gores. Pine Forest Ridge in Stained Glass Cells mixes the two methods, cutting the sky and the hills into large angular panes while the conifers along the ridge stay in fine feathered strokes.

Cell count varies a lot across the collection, so pick by the time you have. The sunburst holds about 90 cells and the diamond lattice about 150. The petal-section rose window breaks into 227 pieces and the peacock into 302, and each takes most adults 60 to 90 minutes.

How to Color a Page So It Reads Like Glass

Fill each cell with a single hue and stop. Real glass is dyed all the way through, so a piece is one color from edge to edge. Blending two colors inside one cell is the fastest way to lose the effect, and it is the mistake most people make on their first sheet.

Change the value between neighboring cells instead. Put a light amber next to a deep amber, then a mid amber beside that. The panel gains depth from the contrast across the leading, not from shading inside it.

Leave the outlines black. The thick lines are the lead, and lead is opaque. If you color over them the panel flattens into ordinary line art.

Work from a jewel palette. Cobalt, emerald, ruby, amber, violet and a warm gold cover almost every historical window you have seen. Six saturated colors read as glass. Twelve pastels read as a coloring book.

Keep one area much lighter than everything else. A pale cell or a small cluster of them tells the eye where the light is coming through, and the whole panel starts to look backlit.

Turn a Finished Page Into a Suncatcher

Print the design on vellum or tracing paper and color it with alcohol markers or glass paint. The ink sits on a translucent sheet, so light passes through it. Tape the finished sheet to a window and the colors project onto the sill the way real glass does.

Regular paper works too if you rub a thin coat of vegetable oil on the back once the coloring dries, then let it sit on newsprint overnight. The paper turns translucent and the color glows. Do this only with colored pencil or crayon, because oil lifts marker ink.

Printing and Paper

Print on 65 lb cardstock for markers or gel pens. The cells on most of these pages sit next to each other with no white gutter between them, so bleed-through on 20 lb copy paper shows up immediately and ruins the next cell.

These are stained glass coloring pages for adults and confident colorists aged 10 and up. The open-celled panels suit younger children well, and the sunburst is a good place to start them: its narrowest cell still measures almost 5 mm across, so a chunky marker holds the lines. Steer that age group away from the petal-section rose window, where the narrowest pieces measure about 2.4 mm.

More pattern work for adults: Art Nouveau shares the leaded-panel look through Tiffany and Mucha, Geometric Mandalas offer the same symmetry and cell-filling rhythm, and Floral Patterns overlap with the rose window and botanical panels here.