Painting Glass With Glue and Food Coloring

Beautiful painted glass using only Mod Podge, food coloring, and dollar store glasses.  It doesn't get much easier!

Have you seen these beautiful sea-glass-looking candlestick holders around Pinterest?  The caption claimed it only takes Elmer's Glue and food coloring.

They've been on my to-try list for a long time, so I finally decided to give it a shot.  Unfortunately, it's one of those oh-so-sad dead links on Pinterest, so I had to search around for another tutorial.  I found this tutorial for using a similar technique to get antique looking blue mason jars using Mod Podge (which I had) instead of Elmer's glue (which I didn't).   I thought this technique would make great votives, and I had some baby food jars laying around for just that purpose, so I gave it a go.

Yeah.  That didn't work very well.  I was excited when I started painting – the colors were brighter, it looked awesome.  Then it started to drip.  And drip, and drip.  And not dry.  I tried getting as much of the excess mixture out of the jars, but since I was painting the inside it would collect inside the tip curvy part and just keep dripping, no matter what I did.  I tried letting them drip out upside down, and that was mildly successful (the green ones) but they looked awful around the top.  Needless to say I was very disappointed ..but not ready to give up!

I bought some dollar store stemless wine glasses, thinking they'd make great candle holders.  This time, I decided to paint the outside in super-thin coats, and let the brush strokes show through…basically a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality.  Here's what you need to make some of your own!

SUPPLIES (affiliate links):

• Mod Podge (or Outdoor Mod Podge if you want them to be waterproof)
• Food Coloring
• Foam brush or paint brush
• Stemless wine glasses (mine were from the Dollar Store) or any other glass jar/candlestick/etc!

Step 1: Gather your materials.  Whatever glass you're painting, Mod Podge (or Elmer's Glue), food coloring, and a paintbrush.  (If you want to avoid the brush strokes, a foam brush might work.)

Step 2: (not pictured) Mix up your food coloring and Mod Podge to your desired color.  I used about 2 spoonfuls of Mod Podge and 4-5 drops of blue food coloring.

Step 3:  Paint a VERY THIN layer of the mixture onto the outside of your glass.  Use long, straight strokes of your brush.  WATCH FOR DRIPS!  Make sure you brush them out before it dries…and it dries quickly!

Step 4: Allow to dry (about 5- 10 mins) and then repeat step 3 to add another coat.  You can see in the third picture of the sequence above that by the time I had finished the first coat on my last glass (left) the first glass (right) has already dried enough for me to start the next coat.  I did 3 coats total – you can do as many as you want to reach your desired level of opacity.  It dries MUCH clearer than it looks when you first put it on.

Step 5: Allow to dry completely (I let mine sit overnight, just to be sure.)  If you use regular Mod Podge, DO NOT GET YOUR GLASSES NEAR WATER!  Mod Podge is water soluble.  Remember my baby food jar fails?  I just filled them with water, let them sit for a minute or two, then the paint peeled right out.  If you drip water on your glasses, they'll get ruined. If you'd like to make outdoor votives, use outdoor Mod Podge – it's not water soluble! It is bit shinier than regular Mod Podge, though, in my experience.

Step 6: Display with pride!

I took the photos on our back deck, but won't leave them there, since I'm sure I'll forget about them and leave them out in the rain.  But, these will be the perfect addition to our screened in back porch.  They look lovely when lit at dusk!

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Painting Glass With Glue and Food Coloring

Source: https://www.unoriginalmom.com/mod-podge-and-food-coloring-painted-glass/

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