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!