How to make Faux Stained Glass with Acrylic Paint and Glue

Love new innovative craft ideas?  I found a way to create faux stained glass using only acrylic paint and glue!

This easy stained glass project is even more fun with a good pattern.  One of my specialties is creating unique patterns like the Majestic Peacock Pattern used in this tutorial.

This project is relatively child friendly and a page from a coloring book can be used for your pattern along with an 8×10 photo frame.  Or, you can use a large sheet of glass and draw out a detailed pattern.

Your choice.

These stained glass projects were made by one of my readers using coloring book pages!

Want to know how to make Faux Stained Glass?  

Faux Stained Glass Peacock

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For this project I used:

• One framed picture covered with glass
• One bottle of white glue
• One bottle of clear glue
• Acrylic paints
• Black Sharpie pen
• Craft Blade
• Super Glue
• Peacock pattern (or page from a coloring book)
• Clear acrylic spray sealant

Start by enlarging your pattern in the same size as your sheet of glass.

I love the color blue and lately, I have been drawing peacocks.  Why?  I have no idea, but they are being incorporated in several projects this month.

I checked the Chinese calendar to see if maybe this was the year of the peacock, and it turned out to be the year of the rabbit.  So apparently, I’m just kinda weird.  But peacock it is.

I took my thrift store find apart, and set aside the frame for later.  Spray the glass with clear acrylic spray.  This is important as it gives the paint and glue something to adhere to.  

Lay the sheet of glass over the pattern.

How to make the leading!

Take the bottle of white glue and dump just a small bit out so that there is room to add color to it.  Add about a teaspoon of black acrylic paint and stir it with a wooden dowel.  Add enough black paint to make a solid color.  You will be surprised, but it doesn’t take a ton of paint to change your white glue to black.  Then put the glue nozzle back on.  The glue is now ready for the next step.

Carefully squeeze the glue onto the glass, following the lines of your pattern.  Try not to have shaky hand syndrome like I do, but even if you do, it can be fixed.

Once all of the lines have been drawn in, allow it to sit overnight to dry completely.

Once it is dry, you can go over it with a craft blade and correct any shaky lines or errors.

Adding color to your Faux Stained Glass project:

For the next step, use a small muffin tin to mix up your colors.  Use about a tablespoon of clear glue to one or two drops of acrylic paint.  You will be surprised at how easy it is to add pigment to clear glue.

Use a blunt paintbrush and add your colors where you want them.  Put it on thickly and be sure to get your colored glue all the way up to the edges of the black lines.  Take your time and if you see any air bubbles in the glue, use a toothpick to pop them.

For a variegated marbled look, add a color to each side of a section and push them together with your brush, mixing them in the middle.  Allow the entire project to dry overnight.

The final step is to do some touch-up with the sharpie pen on the leading where paint may be overlapped.  If you are neat to begin with, you might be able to skip this step.  I’m not neat.  So my friend, the sharpie, was put to use.

I painted the frame a deep blue and re-framed the glass.  This can sit in a windowsill where the sunlight can shine through, or you can hang it on a wall.  Either way, it turns out pretty decent and costs just pennies.  And looks just as good as those expensive stained glass paints that you can buy at the craft store. Edited: One suggestion for this project is to finish it with a coat of clear acrylic spray sealant in order to protect it.

Here is a beautiful piece done by artist Jennifer Stoehner using this very technique of faux stained glass.  She has allowed me to share it here:

Jennifer says that the blue bonnets, orange blossoms and yuccas are the state flowers of where her client’s family was born.  The bee and the lady bug represent her nephew who was killed in a plane crash a few months ago because he loved bugs.  And the caddis represents her brother-in-law who was also in the plane crash.

You can find more of Jennifer’s beautiful work on her website.

Love to Craft?

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