The art of stained glass window making is a pretty skilled and expensive one. If you love the stained glass look and want some to decorate your house with, even secondhand pieces can be quite expensive.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to achieve that look without having to spend a fortune on real stained glass.
Stained glass is wonderful for bringing illuminated colors into your room and is a fun way to hide ugly views without obscuring the light.
It is also a fun way to spruce up vintage windows that can be hung as art or even old photo frames. If you remove the glass from the frame, you have a great glass canvas to practice on.
With a little bit of artistic flair (though not necessarily too much) and a few materials, you can create some cool decorative pieces to brighten up boring windows.
The ideas below help you to create a stained-glass look without having to cut glass or use lead stripping. This is all done with paint and would even be a fun project for kids to get on board with.
Preparing Glass for Stained Glass
First of all, no matter what materials you are going to use for your stained glass creation, you need to clean your glass very well.
Wash the glass with soap and water and remove any stubborn marks, dried paint, or sticky stuff with a razor blade. BE CAREFUL.
Make sure the glass is completely dry before applying any outliner or paint.
How to Mark a Stencil on Your Glass
How you do this will all depend on what it is you are trying to paint.
If it is available for you to do so, you can print or draw out your design on a piece of paper. This can then be taped to the underside of your glass so that it shows through.
You will then just use the design as a template to recreate it in paint.
You could also draw your design directly onto your glass with a marker pen. If you make a mistake, a little bit of rubbing alcohol should get it off.
The Easiest and Cheapest Faux Stained Glass Window
Outliner- If you want to make a cheap and easy stained glass window effect, you can get tubes of black or grey outliner to draw your design out with.
This dries raised and creates a border for the glass paint to butt up against.
If you can’t get hold of this type of outliner, you can try to make it yourself with art and craft supplies that you might already have at home.
All you need is some acrylic paint and some school glue. Mix the glue and paint together in a pot until they are completely combined.
Make a cone out of some recycled plastic packaging to use to pipe out your outliner. Put your mixture into the cone and seal it at the top. You can cut a hole in the tip of the cone to allow the mixture to be piped out.
If you have a tube of glue with a nozzle, you could always fill it with your mixture and use it to dispense the outliner over your design
Glass Paint- There are also lots of water-based glass paints on the market for you to use, as well as a new trend in glass painting marker pens.
Depending on the brand you buy, however, will depend on the price. That said, just like with the outliner, you can make your glass paints out of art and craft sullies that you might already have.
Just as you did with the outliner, you can mix school glue, or any glue that dries clear, and mix it with acrylic paint. The more acrylic paint you add to the glue, the more opaque the paint will be. You can judge this for yourself.
When you apply the paint to the glass, try to make it as even as you can so that the light shines through it evenly.
Where to Get Ideas for Designs
There is lots of inspiration online for beautiful and simple stained glass window designs. Some are even free for you to download and print off.
Related Content:
Easy Ways to Help the Planet:
- Eat Less Meat: Download Food Monster, the largest plant-based Recipe app on the App Store to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy. You can also buy a hard or soft copy of our favorite vegan cookbooks.
- Reduce Your Fast Fashion Footprint: Take initiative by standing up against fast fashion Pollution and supporting sustainable and circular brands like Tiny Rescue that are raising awareness around important issues through recycled zero-waste clothing designed to be returned and remade repeatedly.
- Support Independent Media: Being publicly funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!
- Sign a Petition: Your voice matters! Help turn petitions into victories by signing the latest list of must-sign petitions to help people, animals, and the planet.
- Stay Informed: Keep up with the latest news and important stories involving animals, the environment, sustainable living, food, health, and human interest topics by subscribing to our newsletter!
- Do What You Can: Reduce waste, plant trees, eat local, travel responsibly, reuse stuff, say no to single-use plastics, recycle, vote smart, switch to cold water laundry, divest from fossil fuels, save water, shop wisely, Donate if you can, grow your own food, volunteer, conserve energy, compost, and don’t forget about the microplastics and microbeads lurking in common household and personal care products!
