Faux Stained Glass made with Alcohol Ink, Laminating Pouches, and Vinyl Decals

A couple weeks ago I made some rainbow-colored sheets of plastic with alcohol ink and some laminating pouches. I turned those sheets into some Easter Sun Catchers with the help of my Silhouette.

I dripped ink onto the inside of the laminating pouches and then ran them through the laminating machine. I only ended up using one of the plastic sheets to make my Easter Sun Catchers, so I had two leftover pages of rainbow-colored plastic.

I found some stained glass designs with a quick google search. I think this one might be a coloring page, but it was the right size, and I liked the pattern, so I traced it in Silhouette studio and sent it to the cutting machine using the preset settings for vinyl.

I designed two pages of decals (since I had two sheets of rainbow plastic). I cut them out of my machine and trimmed off the excess vinyl (since the laminator sheets are 9 x 12 ish and the vinyl is 12 inches--if I had been smart, I would have cut 12 x 18 with the designs turned on their sides since my vinyl was on a roll, but alas, I did not). I got out a vinyl pick and a craft knife and got to weeding. I usually opt for the pick, but sometimes the knife works better, it just depends on the pattern.

This one weeded pretty easily. There weren't too many small sections, so the vinyl pulled off easily.

The second design had some smaller panes with very fine vinyl cuts. They were harder to weed without stretching or pulling up the pattern, but I managed not to destroy any of them while I was weeding--so success!

I grabbed some transfer tape and cut it to size and peeled it off it's backing and applied it to the decal. Since this decal is technically just one piece, I used some less sticky transfer tape. I just needed something to keep the design from twisting, stretching, or sticking to itself. After I rubbed the transfer tape into place over the decal, I peeled it off of its paper backing.

I then applied it to the rainbow plastic laminating pouch. I attempted to peel back the paper while applying it (stick it along the top and work my way down). I would not recommend that method. I got lots of bubbles I had to smooth out in the vinyl.

After the transfer tape was all rubbed down, I carefully peeled it back to reveal my design. I inspected the decal for bumps and bubbles and tried my best to smooth them out.

For the second sheet of designs, I tried a different method. I stuck the transfer tape onto the vinyl and rubbed it down, then I peeled it off its paper backing and left it on the table sticky side up.

Then I applied the plastic laminating sheet to the transfer tape with my designs. This seemed to work a bit better. There were fewer bubbles. It was easier to smooth down. It was a bit harder to get the design lined up straight, but my designs were slightly smaller than the sheet, so it worked out.

I rubbed the transfer tape down to make sure the vinyl stuck to the laminating sheet, then I carefully peeled it off.

Then I used a sharp scissors to cut the stained glass panels out of the laminating plastic.

I cut right up against the vinyl of the larger designs and left a tiny edge on the smaller designs, since the vinyl was so thin.

These turned out amazing! After I got a few pictures, I used some water to stick them to my front door window. I figured they'd fall off after a couple hours, but they stayed stuck up there all day.  I'll probably make some tiny holes and use fishing wire to hang the panels so they don't fall down, but this project has given me so many ideas for new ways to use alcohol ink and plastic!