Faux Stained Glass Squares


This week's project was inspired by my roll of aluminum tape. I used this tape in some embossing projects a couple weeks ago, so I thought I'd try out another possible use for the tape--faux stained glass leading.


I picked up a few boxes of Memory Glass on the cheap at Tuesday Morning a couple of years ago. I used them to make some sun catchers with embossing powder a while back, but hadn't used them for much else. This project was perfect for these little glass slides. So I grabbed some alcohol ink, my applicator, and my craft mat and got to work.


I dotted my applicator felt with a few different contrasting colors of ink and got started stamping. You don't need to put that much ink on your felt for such a small square of glass...I went a little overboard, but you get the idea.


I stamped the glass a few times to cover the whole square with ink and it looked like the photo above. It's sort of blurry and water color-y. When working with glass, I will stamp it more so that it looks more stippled and has darker edges around the blobs of color. Stamp away until you notice the change.


After dabbing the glass about a dozen times, it starts to look darker and the spots get smaller. If you don't like the way the colors look at this point (the one above looked pretty good), you can add ink to your applicator in a contrasting color and stamp it over top your existing colors. If you think you've totally messed it up, you probably haven't--try a different color or a new piece of felt. If it's a totally brown mess, then maybe it's time to start over, which is really easy--just squirt some rubbing alcohol onto a paper towel and wipe off the tile.


I made stamped quite a few squares and a couple oblong pieces. I even added some silver ink to a few. I chose colors with the intention of making these into jewelry. I went with darker colors and chose more coordinating colors rather than contrasting ones for most of the pieces.


After they had dried completely (usually just takes a few minutes, but if you're going to handle them, you may want to wait 10-20), I grabbed a clear piece of glass and cut a strip of aluminum foil tape the length it would need to be to wrap all around the edges. I cut the strip about 3/8ths (or about a centimeter) of an inch thick. 


I stacked the clear piece of glass on top of the side of the glass that I inked and carefully wrapped the tape around the edge, making sure it was centered as I went.


I tried a couple of methods for folding the edges, but found that tucking them into a diagonal miter as I wrapped them around the glass, worked the best. This process was a bit fiddly. I did end up getting one piece of tape completely crumpled and had to make a couple little patches, but over all it looks a lot like stained glass leading.


These turned out great, but I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. I think I might make a couple into suncatchers or wrap some with wire and some matching beads, I haven't quite decided.


But, in the meantime, I picked my favorite of the long slides and glued a a bail onto the back of it using E6000. I strung up the pendant with some suede cording and made a necklace.


If you have any ideas for other uses for these faux stained glass squares, let me know in the comments!

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