a triumphant project

By now, I’m sure you’ve all seen this technique,  (seen here is Creative Little Daisy's version)

which is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.  (except for that one time I watched my cat dive across the room and swat a fly IN MID AIR against the window and stun it, then lick it to death.  That was pretty cool.)  (Oh, and the time I watched my sister totally ream some lady out in the parking lot for yelling at me.  That was AWESOME.) (Well, St. Paul’s cathedral was cool too.  Especially from the top looking down.)  (Ok, maybe I’ve seen a lot of cool things, but this is in the top 20 at least.)

Sheesh.  Anyway.  I know I’m late jumping on this bandwagon, but maybe you are too.  If you haven’t tried this, you really ought to, because it is so easy shmeezy and the results are super cool.  So you feel pretty stellar afterward - you know, the whole “triumphant project” thing.  So I’m adding my experience in there with cool kids who’ve already done this.  Want to be cool like us?  I’m telling you, it’s so easy to make stained glass vases, you’re gonna cry about not doing it sooner.  (Or maybe not CRY - that could just be me being over-emotional).

Here’s the ingredients:

mod podge (have I mentioned I love this stuff?)

food coloring

water

a plastic cup/bowl/something you don’t mind getting super stained and messy

a stir stick of some sort

a glass vase/bowl/jar/cup of some sort that you will NOT be eating or drinking out of

an oven (that’s right.  All those who have yet to upgrade from microwave or fire pit, sorry, you’re out of luck.)

Windex and paper towels (Optional)

First off, cover your work surface.  Cover it now.  Cover it or you will be sorry.  My sister was all set to just dive in here, but I quick threw some paper down underneath her antsy little hands.  Phew.

Now, preheat your oven to it’s lowest setting - what is that?  170, I think?

Pour some mod podge into your plastic cup.  See how vigorously she’s shaking it??  I think that’s a requirement.

Add a few drops of the food coloring of your choice.

I wanted green, so I added some yellow to the blue.

Now, stir it around.  (Also vigorously, obviously).

Add a bit of water.  (you can see here that I forgot to mention another essential ingredient... mmmmm... chocolate shake....)

Stir.  This is the approximate consistency you should have.  It should drip off the end of the stirer, but it shouldn’t be so runny that it just runs right off.  It does need to maintain some of its stickiness.

Dump some of the mixture into the glass container.  

Turn the container and tip it around and around, until the mod podge mixture has coated the entire INSIDE of the glass.  You want it to go right up to the edges around the top.

After you’ve coated the whole inside, carefully tip the excess mod podge stuff out of the glass back into the cup.  You really want to get as much excess out as you can, so shake it a little and hold it upside down for a while, making sure to turn it and let as much drip out as possible.

You do NOT want it on the outside.  It will look yucky.  So this is where the optional windex/paper towels come in.  If you’re careful (and not impatient, like me) you won’t need it.  But to make doubly sure the outside of my glass was perfectly clean, I wiped off each container I made with windex after I coated them.

Now, put them on a cookie sheet (or on tin foil covering a cookie sheet which is what I would have done to ease clean up had I actually HAD any tin foil at the time) and put them in your oven.

Here’s the thing.  You’re supposed to cook them for 30 minutes.  But, we got busy with other projects and accidentally forgot about them.  They were in for at least an hour.  

I was terrified to check, but when I took them out, they looked like this:

GORGEOUS!  (if I do say so myself).

Here’re some thoughts:

1. I think the extra time in the oven really helped to cook and solidify any puddles of mod podge that collected at the bottom of the glass (because no matter how hard you try, you can’t get ALL the excess out.  You just can’t).  So I say, leave them in for about an hour.  Check them.  If they need a little more time, leave them in a bit longer.  You be the judge.
2. I used some vases left over from my wedding reception - told you had a million.  If you happen to have a million glass vases that you bought for your wedding reception that are now collecting dust in your parent’s basement, you’re in luck!
3. I also used large baby food jars (heaven knows I have enough of those around - little oinker)  and a jam jar.  I used goo gone to get all the adhesive off.  Use what you got, baby!
4. I wanted all different hues of green - deep green, blueish green, yellow green... so I played around with the amounts of blue and yellow food coloring every time I made another jar.  This gives each one its own unique look, and a little variation adds to the charm.

So, I loved this project so much, you can bet I’ll be playing around with it in the future.  In fact, I already have one more project to show you using this technique!  (it’s not quite finished.)  

I also loved it so much, that I took about a gazillion pictures.  (not quite a bajizillion, but close).

Thanks to Lise for the nudge to do this project, and for bringing the motivation and the recipe.  Oh, and for yelling at that lady for me.  

EDITED TO ADD:

BEFORE you put water in your vases or jars, you definitely need to seal those bad boys up.  Mod podge IS water-based.  They will be RUINED if you don't seal them.  Sooooo...

when you take them out of the oven, let them cool completely.  Then spray them down with something like craft sealer (tons of options you can get anywhere like Hobby Lobby) OR clear spray paint.  Or you could maybe use like polyurethane, but then you'd have brush strokes.  

PS.  Have you gone over and signed up for the Stashbusting Party at Robin's (The T-Shirt Diaries)?  What the heck are you waiting for?  I know you have some stash built up that you need to bust out!  Come on, get a move on!  
PPS.  I wrote up a little ditty and she introduced me on her blog!  You can read it here, if you want.

SIMPOSONIZED CRAFTS, AND THEN SOME