Make a Faux Stained Glass Window with #DecoArt

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I am so excited to share this project with you! A few weeks ago I received an incredible box of assorted glass paints from DecoArt. They are scrumptious! You’ll be seeing tons of glass painting projects here soon, believe me. But when I saw Glass Stains, I knew what my first project would be – faux stained glass!

Does it look like it might be hard or complicated? It’s not, my friends. You don’t even have to know how to paint. Really!

I wanted to make something that would reflect the beautiful ambers, golds and russets of Fall. Ahhh . . . aren’t you ready? And truly, what is more lovely than those colors when they’re translucent? When light passes thru them and creates a spectacular dance of shades and hues.

Thanks to DecoArt Glass Stains, it was fun and easy.

Supplies Needed

• Glass surface (I used a thrift store frame)
• Rubbing alcohol & cotton to clean the glass
• Pattern
• Glass Stain Leading
• Utility Knife
• Glass Stains in Clear, Yellow, Orange, Red, Brown & Green.
• Toothpicks
• Paper Towels
• Small Paintbrush
• optional: painter’s tape

You can use anything for your pattern, or my fall leaves, if you’d like. All you need is an outline.

Or you could also use stencils. DecoArt has some wonderful self-adhesive stencils that adhere to the glass. Perfect for curved shapes.

Below I’ve written the steps out but here’s a video too.

 

Prepare Glass for Glass Stain

First, thoroughly clean the glass with rubbing alcohol and allow to dry. While it’s drying, mark off the borders. I used the cardboard that came in the frame, created the borders and transferred the leaves.

Then I popped the glass and cardboard back into the frame.

 

Then I saw a little ‘issue’. My border lines were not matching up to the frame. *scratching head* I basically ditched everything but the leaves.

That’s why my pattern above is only the leaves. You can place the grouping in the middle of your frame and then create borders lines that fit your frame.

Make sense?

How To Pour Glass Stain Leading

Does the thought of painting or drawing a straight line freak you out? If it does, you’ll want to practice pouring your leading lines a few times to get the feel of it before working on your glass.

It’s not hard – but you want to get the feel of how much pressure to apply so that you’re comfortable.

I store the leading upside down so it’s ready to flow, without bubbles or need for excessive pressure. Trust me – I speak from experience.

Keep your paper towel handy to wipe the tip after each pour. You’ll keep the opening free and clear this way and, again, won’t need excessive pressure.

Since the ruled lines I drew didn’t fit the frame, I grabbed some painter’s tape and masked off a square about an inch inside the frame. After the tape is placed, pour leading around the entire inside of the frame.

Think about real stained glass – it’s a bunch of pieces of glass that are soldered together. So you want to create that effect with your leading and “solder” the glass into the frame.

Look at the blue rectangle on the left. Notice that the bottom tape has no leading. That’s because leading takes about 6-8 hours to dry fully and I didn’t want to mess up that bottom line, so I left it ‘til last.

See the pic on the right? Yeah. I had some goopy clumps. No worries, ok? Just allow the leading to completely dry and then remove any clumps with your utility knife.

I pulled the tape up while the leading was wet. It might work if you let the leading dry. I dunno. I was too afraid I’d pull up all of the leading so I didn’t wait. It worked really well to create a nice straight line.

Yeah, I missed a spot here and there. Again, no worries. Just come back with your leading and fill it in.

Oh, I want to mention that there’s a cool video on DecoArt that shows you how to make really, really fine lines by just adding some adhesive tape to the tip of the bottle. Check it out.

Now it’s time to trace the leaves with the leading. Notice how in the bottom left I still hadn’t poured that lower border yet.

On some of the leaves I extended the vein to connect to the borders. Why? To make it look like the background is in pieces, like real stained glass. It’s a subtle thing, but it’ll add some realism to your finished piece.

Alright! Now for the really fun stuff! Colors!

Mixing & Pouring Glass Stain Colors

It’s so easy! Just squirt a little brown, then a little yellow, take a toothpick and swirl it all together. So much fun!

Couple of tips – “pull” the colors to the leading with your toothpick. As the paint dries it shrinks a bit, so you want to make sure you’ve completely filled the space in with color.

Also, the more you ‘swirl’ or move the stain, you might get some bubbles. Just take a clean toothpick and pop ‘em if you don’t like the look of bubbles.

That’s really all there is to it!

I found it more comfortable to work in smaller portions, rather than filling in an entire leaf.

I got a little braver and added some Orange to the mix.

Then I really let loose and poured four or five colors in the small leaf.

Aren’t they pretty? And they’re not even dry yet. I could hardly wait to see what they’d look like with light shining through.

Be patient, and let them dry flat so your colors don’t run.

For the background I used Clear and a paintbrush to spread it around. The paintbrush adds a bit of texture so it looks like marbled glass.

For the inner border I poured Green + Clear. The outer border is Yellow + Orange with a couple drops of Brown. I swirled the colors together and then made long lines.

I’m not kidding, this is so much fun. I can’t wait to make something else!

Can you see how the Clear background looks kind of marbled in this shot?

I love the sun shining thru all the colors. So pretty!

But, you know what? Even just set against a mirror, the colors are glorious.

I am in love with this product, DecoArt Glass Stains. I think you will be too! Wouldn’t it be fun for Halloween? And Christmas!?!

I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign. The opinions in this post are my own, as always.

DecoArt makes a variety of paint for glass. Check out my friends’ projects!