DIY Faux Stained Glass Recycled Jars

I don’t know of a lot of kids who are really into stained glass, but I was when I was really little. My parents got these gorgeous stained glass windows that my dad hung from the ceiling in between the living room and the dining room. Who knows where they came from but they were typical 80s in color scheme and design.

When I was little,   just like today, I was also terrible about sleepwalking. The place I most often woke up was in the corner of the living room, behind my dad’s humongous brown recliner and just below one of these very pretty stained glass pieces. I’d wake up with colors from the glass shining down on my face. I remember lying there, long after I’d woken up, to watch the lights coming through change as the sun came up. And that was the best time to look at it when the sun was moving and the colors coming off danced with it.

I often worked to recreate the stained glass effect in my drawings and crafts. I remember one time Momma and I collected jam jars to turn into little miniature stained glass works of art. And some nights when I had trouble sleeping (childhood insomnia is the pits) she would light a candle in one of the jars and I’d watch the colors dance around my room with the flame.

For this project you will need:

• Jars
• Mod Podge
• Paintbrush
• Tissue paper
• Scissors
• Candles

I hate the idea of wasting and glass jars so often come in handy when being crafty that I have a tendency to hoard them. Here is one of my stash bins of glass jars! Which, of course, isn’t interesting to the cats until I move it from there to here to take a picture of it.

I went through my stash and found three that were similar shapes but different sizes. I also made sure that they were smooth as the raised texture ones wouldn’t be as easy to work with.

Tissue paper is often sold in coordinating multi-color packs. Take yours and cut it into little squares. They don’t need to all be the same size. In fact, the imperfection will really make these jars look nice.

Oh, and before you spend the time or the money, I’ll fill you in on a little secret. Do you know those nifty paper cutters that will punch stars or any number of nifty shapes out of a piece of paper for you? They don’t work with tissue paper.

When I was a kid we used watered down Elmer’s glue for our decoupage projects, but nowadays I am a Mod Podge addict. Take a small amount and brush it onto the glass. You want enough that the tissue will adhere but not too much. If the paper gets really sopping wet, it will tear so much more easily.

Continue gluing on your squares being mindful of your color placement. Also, pay attention to the top edge of your paper. I wanted mine to be as straight as possible or the whole thing would have driven me nuts. Also, I chose to not even bother trying to cover the lips of the jars where the threads for the lids are.

Do your best to maintain the same style when gluing your pieces onto different jars.

You can also tell that every once in a while I would use a square piece over already covered sections to have some nice overlap.

To finish your jars, go over with a healthy coat of Mod Podge. Take care because any edges that didn’t get glued down in the first pass can easily tear when you brush over them.

Allow to fully dry.

And once complete, they are pretty little jars you can place on your desktop, throw some pens into, or if you seal with outdoor Mod Podge (which is the closest formula to waterproof) you can even toss your toothbrushes in one.

But the magic happens when candles are lit inside of a dark room.

Allison

A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.