You can hardly swing a cat helicopter on the internet without finding a tutorial to dye glass (particularly mason jars), but when I’ve tried this project, I’ve found a lot of details to be missing in the available instructions. So I’m adding my own flying feline and showing you how to turn thrifted glassware into gorgeous candleholders.
P.S. Yes, I am only talking about making candleholders. You could also use this to display your Brightspot Bouquets, but your final product will not be waterproof. I’ll give you a tutorial for DIY vases for fresh flowers in the near future.
Here’s what you’ll need:
What’s Missing:
-Plastic Cup & Spoon
-Water
You can use any kind of glassware you can find – vases, candy dishes, or cups. I think it adds a little more interest (and ability to hide imperfections in dyeing) to use glass with designs cut in.
1. Clean off any labels or sticky stuff and thoroughly clean the inside of the glass. Make sure the soap is rinsed out. If not, the Mod Podge will have a tough time sticking. Turn them over on a drying rack. Walk away… They should be completely dry before you begin.
2. Mix up your dye using a disposable cup and spoon. If you have sensitive skin, you may want to put on gloves as well. There’s a good chance you’re going to stain your hands.
I used a formula of 3 parts Mod Podge to 1 part water to get a good consistency. My “parts” were spoonfuls, which gave me more than enough liquid to dye the five short glasses.
From here, you will add food coloring to create your desired effect. Refer to the diagram on the back of the box to see how much you need to add to achieve your color. I found the column referring to white cake mix to work the best for this project.
Stir, stir, stir well! You don’t want white streaks!
3. Before we start dyeing, cover your drying rack with an old towel. Don’t want to dye the rack, too!
4. At this point, transfer all the liquid to your first piece. Very carefully, swirl the dye around the glass, covering all surfaces (including any lips at the top) while dumping the access into the next piece you’ll work on. Try to shake out all extra liquid and then turn it over on the drying rack.
Repeat with all pieces; finish by dumping any access liquid back into the plastic cup. Clean off any liquid that got on the outside of the glasses.
5. Once again, walk away! It seems to work best when the glasses have at least 30 minutes to get out extra liquid.
6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (or your lowest setting). (Check to make sure you have space between the racks to fit your glasses standing up tall. I tried one round with vases on their side. It did not go well!) Place the glasses, right side up on the cookie sheet. “Bake” for at least 40 minutes. If you don’t need them immediately, turn off the oven and leave the vases in their for an hour or so to really dry the dye.
Ta-da! New, fancy candleholders.
This could be fun to do for backyard barbecues to dress up citronella candles. Let me know what your final results look like!
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