Faux Stained Glass

Make fake stained glass with hot glue, plexiglass, and paint! Cheap, easy, and pretty.

Supply list:
Hot Glue Gun
Black Hot Glue
Glass Paints
Paper
Thick Marker
Tape
Plexiglass (you can use glass, but it is heavy!)

Step 1: Black Hot Glue

I found it online and have only used this brand so far. It is more expensive than regular hot glue. A 5 lb box costs about 50 dollars. Looks like it's main purpose is to attach weaves at beauty salons.

Comments

[bearcat73]

Just an FYI, you can buy glass paint and faux leading paint at any craft store and it is pretty cheap. It is made by Plaid and called "Gallery Glass". The faux lead is called "liquid leading" and is less than $5 a bottle. I did cabinet doors last year. It's a lot of fun!!

[juleebugg]

Those are gorgeous!!!

[rshoma]

cute glass print

[Rajminder]

Hi
I saw your cabinet doors done with glass paints.  I would like to know how you got the back ground effect.  It has a blurry background which looks very effective so how did you do that.  And a friend of mine had done glass painting and in the end all the coloured areas were not smooth but the paint had an effect like a honey comb.  do you know how to achieve that.

[Hokiepokieful]

I like the Charr design :)

[jakyo]

I love this idea ,and i am definitely going to try this *** thanks **** :-)

[EoghanInAus]

I absolutely love it. I started doing projects with my daughter using this idea, she is always testing my copying skills and soon she will be doing these for herself. Well Done!!

[rimafeathers]

Nice project, but I absolutely agree- What kind of paint?

[Madkins007]

If you search 'black hot glue', you'll find places like Direct Depot that saell it for about $10-15 for 10 sticks or so. Great instructable! Most 'paint stain glass' instructions make you buy 'liquid lead' or something similar for the lines- I like the hot glue option!

[ab73037]

What kind of paints?

[StoryAddict]

Very cool. This gives me some ideas for some doors to my wall-length media cabinet / bookcase. You said the black glue sticks are like $50 online for 5lbs. About how much glue do you think you used on this one project? I'm curious how cost-efficient buying a 5lb. supply is if making several of these.

[goosezilla]

I went through about seven glue sticks for this project, which is on a 10x14 panel. You can measure your doors and estimate how many sticks you will need based on how much glue I used. I would guess that the project I posted is fairly dense detail wise. A 5lb box has 235 sticks of glue in it. Happy project making!

[tonipmd]

This is f***ing FABULOUS! How much would you say it cost you to make this piece?

[goosezilla]

The initial setup probably cost around 60 dollars for all the supplies, but that is enough to make tons of these. Individually it probably cost around 4-5 dollars to make. Less if you can just find some plexiglass! I bought a sheet from home depot.

[Omensinsmoke]

That is freaking awesome!

[dmodlin71]

puffy paint such as this....

Tulip Dimensional Fabric Paint

[goosezilla]

Puffy paint should work. Plus it has tons of colors. However I think that puffy paint is more expensive unless you can find a really good sale on it. Also when I use puffy paint I always get air bubbles at some point that make holes in my lines, which is one of the reasons I like the hot glue.

[dmodlin71]

What about that "puffy paint" that you can use on fabrics, etc. - I wonder if that would work for the 'lead', instead of the glue sticks? Unless it is too thin.... but it would certainly be cheaper. I love this idea! It would be fun to try this on an old window from a junk store - something with a nice frame and shape - paint/stain the frame, stain the glass... and hang it somewhere from hooks where the light would catch it.

[jhorn51]

What size are the glue sticks you use? I found some on eBay that are 7/16" in diameter and 10" long, 87 to a 5 lb. box, for around $36 with shipping.

[goosezilla]

I'm not sure the diameter of the ones I have because the box doesn't say. They are 4in long and fit a regular glue gun. Whatever those take these fit into.

[piper1234]

; ) plexiglass will last much more than glass and avoid to get shards in your fingers and chips around if you cut wrong an expensive colored glass :O

[kg1]

Soooooo cool!

[groovezilla]

good stuff. and i dig the name as well!

[goosezilla]

Thanks!

[gannon]

Wonderfully easy--thanks for sharing!!!

[goosezilla]

You're welcome!

[missmonster]

I love you, Goosezilla! :D It looks so awesome and thank you for sharing the method!

[goosezilla]

I can't wait to see your next costume! Will that one come with an instructable too? :)

[missmonster]

YEAH! When i figure out what im going to make, I'll probably do another Instructable :D I'm not sure what to make though...

[Doc Holliday]

Folks, let's tell the "chief" that this instructable has inspired great conversation as well as being one of the best ever. Awesome creativity and community.

[goosezilla]

Mostly it is just fun. :)

[Where]

THANK YOU! I've been working on a project like this for 2 YEARS and haven't finished because I can't find a sealer. The clearshield stuff looks like it's just what I need. Now I can finally finish this coffee table! FWIW, I used glass paint with sticky back lead tape (found at the local stained glass supply store here in NYC). I would recommend that you NOT do what I did and paint the top of the glass, with the sticky back tape on it. While it gives you the best texture, I now have to worry about making sure the paint doesn't come up. (Hence the need for the Clearshield). Here are a few shots of the work in progress...

[goosezilla]

:D I can't wait to see this finished!

[michaelp]

This is a great idea. Another temporary "stained glass" treatment is to stretch clear plastic on a frame (PVC), draw on the pattern on the plastic, cut tissue paper to match the pattern, then using spray glue attach the tissue to the plastic. Go over the joint lines with a black marker and voila. When lit from behind they look pretty good. Great for large. lightweight, displays. The pictures actual sizes are 5 feet x 10 feet.

[goosezilla]

Awesome! This technique reminds me of the paper lantern forms some people make. I think they use strips of bamboo for the frame and layer tissue across the open gaps for very strong and somewhat flexible structures.

[goosezilla]

Sounds fun! THough I think liquid lead or the hot glue technique here would still be better than the marker, they give that 3d leaded look and are completely opaque. Markers I've tried out still let light through, though maybe a paint marker would work?

[jallen732]

I am an elementary art teacher and used the top domed portion of plastic 2-liter soda bottles upon which the kids designed Tiffany-inspired lampshades. As hot-glue guns are "out" with kids, for the "leading" I went to Home Depot and bought bronze color latex caulk. I pumped it into a Yorker-spout bottle and then diluted it a bit with some water for better flow. It was still dimensional. The spout bottle was easy for 8 year olds to squeeze and the bottle allowed for good detail. Even diluted some, the caulk clung extremely well to the plastic.

[Madrigorne]

That's awesome

[goosezilla]

Great idea! I wonder if you could mix some dark pigment powder into the caulk to darken/make other colors?

[jallen732]

The bronze colored caulk was a deep (slightly metallic) burnt umber. I have seen the caulks available in silver, gold, black and other colors as well, and these were all available at Home Depot. Because they are latex I imagine a white or translucent (but not the silicone variety!) caulk could be tinted with artists' tube acrylics to be any color. I experimented with metallic powders, like those made by the Jacquard company. They weren't effective when mixed into the caulk, but were spectacular against the dark bronze color when lightly rubbed onto the dry caulk lines. No sealer was needed after to keep the metallic powder bound to the caulk. I omitted this from the kids' work as it was just another step for them to do, but it did look great.