Faux Stained Glass and You

My first serious faux stained glass craft in my new home has been a smashing success.

Unfortunately I only took a photo of the finished product. Lesson learned, now there will be pictures! Warning: This blog will contain a plethora of pictures!

Project: Unique DIY solar lighting.
Insipiration: In The Know Mom - via Pinterest
Materials: Glass jar, solar light, transparent caulking, excato knife, Martha Stewart glass paints.


The In The Know Mom details how to copy frosted solar light for much less cost then the store bought version. I decided to try to take it a step further and create personalized, unique variants. Restrictions? Aside from the solar light, I had to scrounge everything else from the home. No new crafty purchases. I wrestle with the desire to trot over to Michaels craft store and dig through my many and unorganized craft hiding spots.

I started with a jar or olive tampanid tucked at the back of my fridge and well beyond it's best-before date. Ick. I cleaned the jar, used Goo-gone to take the label off and I had my first container!

I placed the solar light against the lid of the jar and marked the dimensions.

With an excato knife I traced the line, using enough pressure to dent the opposite side.

I punched through the lid with the excato knife to create a space large enough for the whole solar light and housing to slide in comfortably.

I sealed the solar light to the lid with transparent caulking and let it dry overnight.

Now the fun stuff!

The grocery store had cute decals for a kid's room - Jump Kids World by Loblaws - and I will adapt them for the solar jar. My youngest sleeps with a plush fox at night, so I will do a fox image on the first jar. I measured the height of the flat part of the jar and scaled the image of the fox on my computer to match. After printing the fox image, I taped it inside of the jar to keep it from moving.

I have to add the glass paints in stages, first the black for the outline and because it holds it's shape the best. When I did the Calvin and Hobbes window I found the white and orange ran instead of staying put. The black should corral the wayward tendencies of the colours in step two. I have noticed that the Martha Stewart colours bleed if you let them, so I will let the black dry on the jar while I prep the next jar...or cook....or clean....or, most likely, get lost on Pinterest for a bit.

In the end, I needed three or so coats of the liquid fill to get a brilliant colour.  I frosted the rest of the glass with more glass paint to mute the intensity of the light. That sure is a cute fox!

While I was waiting for the layers of colour to dry on the fox, my son requested a light for him in Captain America motif.  I taped a print-out to the inside of the glass, traced the outline with black and after the black was dry I filled in the spaces with colour! Note: curved surfaces are a giant pain. Don't do it. I had to colour a tiny section, wait for it to dry, rotate the glass and repeat. If the glass paint was less viscous then maybe it would have been an easier process.  My new mission is to purchase items in squarish glasses.

Please share your thoughts, techniques, ideas, questions, querys and whatnots!

Happy crafting!

Glass Etchers Assemble!

Project: Superhero Etched Glasses.
Insipiration: I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar - via Pinterest
Materials: Drinking glasses, masking tape, printer, excato knife, glass etching cream.

The first attempt at glass etching was okay. Not awesome. Not amazing. Just....Okay. So, here I will share my learning experiences with YOU! I Am Momma used some pretty fancy stuff to transfer designs onto glasses as far as my local hardware store is concerned. My local craft store is Michaels, and it's too far away to run to on a whim. I found cute little glass mugs with handles from Homesense for $9.99. One of the six mugs was broken. Never shop for glass ware at Homesense: Check.

The loblaws had glasses for $1 each! Score!

First up, the original five glasses.

Transformers logo.

Avengers logo.

Batman logo.

Captain America logo.

Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.





To create these etchings I first searched the internet for silhouette images of each character and logo. I printed the logos and covered the glasses in electrical tape. Then I taped the print-out to the glass. Using an excato knife I carefully traced the image, cutting out the area I wanted to be etched. Then I painted the glass with Martha Stewart Glass Etching Medium because Armor Etch wasn't at my local craft store. I can't tell you the price difference, but I can suggest that if you purchase the etching medium from Michaels that you go with a 40% off coupon. I let the etching medium sit on the glass for 15 minutes, then washed it off and peeled back the tape. There are pictures in the next section for the second set of glasses. It's hard to see in the pictures, but the electrical tape allowed the etching medium to seep between the layers a little bit, so every few centimeters there is a little triangle on the image. It's not a big deal and I'm not sure anyone would notice unless I pointed it out, but I am a bit of a perfectionist - doesn't work well when it is coupled with my total lack of patience - so I would not recommend electrical tape.

For the second set I used wide masking tape, which was much better, but still not perfection. The glasses were larger, which made me bold enough to attempt more intricate designs.

Here is the second set, freshly etched.

 

The Dark Knight.

Captain America.

The Hulk.

Iron Man.

Optimus Prime.

Rorschach.






The masking tape made free-standing detail difficult, like eyes and chest logos. Batman originally had eyes, but they didn't make the final cut. I learned from Batman and now Iron Man can see.

I saw a blog that used mactac instead of tape.  I think mactac would provide less issues with tape lines, and lit would allow you to cut out the images on a flat surface.  I was carving on the glass, which didn't damage the glass but it did make things slightly more difficult. In the Momma Roar blog transfer tape is used and looked pretty successful. Given the inventory of my local hardware store and the distance of the nearest craft store, I thought I would attempt to do as much as I could using household items.

I will update this blog as birthdays and other special occasions creep up and I shower loved ones with unique gifts.

Good luck to everyone who attempts glass etching. Please share your work here or on other sites it inspire and educate others.