Easy Stained Glass Tutorial | Here's a step by step tutorial on how to turn Dollar Tree picture frames into faux stained glass 😍 This is a great project for spring/Easter that kids... | By Emily Seilhamer Art | Let me show you how to turn Dollar Tree picture frames into stained glass art. All you need is a picture frame. I'm going to use two different sizes today and some simple patterns. I sketched out a cross and a butterfly but you could print off simple coloring book pages or there's even free stained glass art images that you can download and print as well. So, decide what pattern you're going to use and then you're going to put it in the frame pattern side down against the glass just like you were framing it yourself. I like to tape my image on one side just to make sure it doesn't shift around and there I can see my pattern. Before I do anything though, I'm going to use a little bit of rubbing alcohol and a paper towel and clean off the glass to get any smudges or fingerprints off of it and then, I'm going to grab a permanent marker. This is just a Sharpie and I'm going to use that to trace over my image because the image is inside the frame. I'm sketching it onto the glass to give us a guideline for everything else we're going to do in this project. Don't worry if the lines aren't perfect because we can go back and fix them up later. In fact, I'm going to show you two different ways to make the outline of the stained glass which in real stained glass is called Cames. It's made from lead and it usually lines the different colored pieces and hold them together, almost like a puzzle. Now, once you have your images traced, I'm going to open the frames back up and take out those guidelines. See how the image is sketched onto the glass now? Take the glass out so it's a sharpie side is up and I'm going to add more pattern. When I think of same glass, I think of random geometric patterns. So, taking a ruler and my Sharpie, I'm just going to do some random lines going all different directions coming out from my butterfly and if there's a bigger section, I'm going to add another line to section that off just so I can add more colored. So, it'll look like different sections of colored glass are piece together to make the picture. So, make it random but don't make it super busy. Even though I know this does look busy, it will look really cool in the end. I'm going to do the same thing to the cross. Now, when you're doing these patterns, don't be afraid to do them because guess what? If you do something you don't like, you can use the rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip. See, I made this one a little bit too busy. I'm going to put some rubbing alcohol on my Q tip and it just comes right off the glass. One thing we're going to do today that's going to help especially if you like to change things around is we're going to do the lines on one side of the glass and we're going to do the color on the opposite side so you can edit each side individually instead of having them together. Now, once all the lines are on, I'm going to put the glass back into my frame just to make it easier and because the Sharpie is on the front, I'm going to clean off the backside of my glass now to get any finger prints or smudges off of that. Now, let's add some color to our glass. The trick to this project is clear school glue. That's going to make our paint transparent and you can use just any paint you have. I'm going to use some glass paint and enamel paint that I need to use up but you can just use your craft paint and I'm going to keep my clear school glue separate from my paint colors because we're going to scoop that into just a drop of each of the colors. I'm going to use a lot of colors today because I want my stained glass to be but you really only need a drop of color compared to the amount of school glue. I'm going to scoop that out and I'm using an old brush. You do not want to use a nice brush since we're painting with glue. The more paint that you have in the glue, the more opaque it will be and the less paint you have, the more transparent it will be. See that? Now, remember, we're painting the color onto the backside of the glass. So, the outline is on the opposite sides. You can wipe away and change as needed without having to worry about your outline disappearing and I like to do one color at a time so see how I'm doing all my red sections I'm spacing them out a little bit I'm going to do this to my butterfly and also to my cross so I can just do both projects at the same time as I go now when you switch colors make sure you clean off the brush I'm going to switch to orange here so I'm scooping up my clear glue and mixing it in I'm going to do my butter fly orange. And don't worry if you have a couple different sections that are all the same color you can just paint over that entire section. Don't worry about painting over lines again because the lines are on the other side. Don't forget to hold it up to the light every once in a while just to see how it's looking. I'm going to add green and just keep switching colors until you have the whole project filled. Now I will say this. This is a trust the process project. Have you ever had a project where starts out, you're loving it and then, it starts to get messy and you're like, oh no, what's happening? I don't know if I like this and then, finally, in the end, it all comes together. This is that project. Trust the process and just embrace the mess. The glue because you're putting it on in such thin layers does dry pretty fast by the way. So, if you do a color that you don't want, you can just peel that section off. Use like an Xacto knife or something to separate it from the other colors and you peel it off and put a different color on as needed. I'm going to add some brown to the middle of the butterfly and the cross and there we go. Now, it's dry. I put it back in the frame. Hold it up. We're getting there. That's looking pretty good. Here's what the cross one looks like. So, now we can talk about the lines. First technique I'm going to show you is the messy one but it looks a little bit more like authentic stained glass. We're just going to take a bottle of school glue. Just white Elmer's glue is what I'm using putting some paint, some black paint into the bottle and we're going to take a stick or something and swirl it in there. Mix it all up real good so that you have a shade of gray or black. I like black just because it stands out and once you have it all mixed up, put the cap back on. I wish I had a fine tip but we're just going to use the nozzle that it came with. I'm going to take the glass out of the frame again. Be careful. This is Dollar Tree Frame Glass and then take your bottle and start very slowly squeezing it so that the glue lets out along your outline I have the bottle slightly lifted above the glass and I'm moving it along my design letting it fall be very careful you want to do this slowly. I'm even speeding this up in the video just to show you. If you have a slightly more intricate design it's going to be well worth it if you're careful and take your time with it. All that note though, I actually suggest that you use this technique with only slightly larger frames. This is an eight by 10 and do you see how the lines are starting to settle and spread out, what you put on is going to get slightly thicker as the glue settles. So, if you're doing this on a smaller, tightly packed design, what would happen is the glue would all run together and you might lose your design completely. So, don't do that. That's why I'm doing this technique on this one and not on the I'll show you the other technique a little bit later. Wait like 10 minutes and come back and use a pin to pop any bubbles that might come to the surface. I like to check it every so often to pop the bubbles. Here's what it looks like now. And then I let it dry overnight. Here's what it looks like dry. Isn't that cool? It looks like stained glass. This is why we trust the process. I'm going to put it back in the frame and you could technically glue it into the frame with some E 6 000 and be done. But let me show one more step that really makes all the difference. I'm going to take some tin foil. Take a piece out that's big enough to cover the back of the frame and crumple it up. Now don't crumple it too tight that you can't open it back up again because we're going to lay it flat up against the back of our frame. So I'm just going to crumple it a bunch of times to get this texture. See how the light is shining on that. That's the trick. So I covered the back nice and flat and then I'm going to put it back into the frame. Tinfoil side down against the glass. Look what's going to happen. I'm going to turn it around and I love it. I suggest trying this because it gets rid of the brush strokes a little bit. It just blends everything together. So, that's the first technique. Let me show you the other technique for letting. It's so simple. You just take your permanent marker or your sharpie again and go over your lines. I have it patterned side up and I'm just doing a second coat and making them this is better for smaller designs that are more intricate and also if you don't have a lot of time this is a lot quicker because you don't have to let it dry overnight let's put it back in the frame there we go and I'm just again I'm going to try the tin foil because I love the way it looks crumple it up put it tin foil side down against the glass and there we go oh I love it so much fun perfect for Easter my church used to have something like this behind a pulpit too so it brings back good memories. If you try this project, I would love to see. Have fun. Let me know which technique you like better and happy painting.
