Vase: From Plain to Fabulous

Here are a the collection of painted glass vases. Now what to do with them?

I gathered up some supplies. I love to DIY so I had a lot of this stuff on hand.

clean glass vase - run through dishwasher to make sure very clean.

acrylic paint

disposable cups

Flood (floetrol)

satin clear enamel spray paint

disposable aluminum tray

popsicle sticks

Choose your color scheme. I chose metallics and maroon. I started with about a tablespoon of acrylic paint and put each color in a separate plastic cup. Mix your color selections of acrylic with Flood at about 3 parts Flood to 1 part paint. It should easily run off the popsicle stick.

Pour your color selections into a clean, empty cup, layering the colors. Do not use up all your paint but save some for added design elements later in the painting process. Do not stir the layers.

Take your vase and place it on an empty plastic cup, upside down in the metal tray. The vase should not touch the tray. We are painting the out side. The plastic cup it is sitting on allows the paint to run off and not sit in the runoff paint. You can periodically scrap off the nips of paint on the edge of the vase with a popsicle stick. This will give you a clean edge. Slowly pour your paint on the glass vase. If you feel like your paint is stuck in a vein and not covering the entire vase, just take your popsicle stick and smear a little paint at the top of the gap. That will get the paint flowing in the empty areas.

I wanted some definate color stripping this vase. I used some of the reserved paint and poured lines of paint down the vase. If you feel like you are puddling paint on the bottom, this is a good time to address it. Take a popsicle stick and push the paint in the middle toward the edge. Let the paint run, frequently swiping the edge with the popsicle stick.

Once you like the design and the paint has pretty much stopped flowing off, cover it up and let it dry. I frequently check it and swipe the edge of the vase with a popsicle stick during the drying phase. This helps ensure I have a clean edge. Once it is not shiny at all, it is dry. It usually takes about 24 hours. I then spray it with 4 light coats of the clear satin enamel, giving plenty of time for drying in between each of the 4 light coats.