Saturday, April 25, 2015

V is for Vase

The Pinterest pin said you could paint a mixture of Elmer's glue and food coloring onto anything glass to create a sea glass effect. Easy enough. The pin showed candlesticks that were painted, and they were certainly pretty:



I chose to paint a vase instead of candlesticks because (a) I needed something for "V" and (b) they didn't have any candlesticks at the DAV Thrift Store.

Next stop was to Dollar General (because it was close) for Elmer's glue. All they had was Elmer's School Glue, so I bought a couple of bottles and went home. Then I got to wondering about the difference between Elmer's Glue All and Elmer's School Glue, so I Googled it and found out that both are water soluble when wet, but the school glue also remains water soluble when dry. Thinking that the glue remaining water soluble after drying wouldn't be a very good characteristic for a vase, I was about to go out and get the real stuff when I saw a different pin for the same project that said you could use Mod Podge instead of Elmer's glue, and as luck would have it, I actually had some of that!

Just a teaspoon of Mod Podge and a teaspoon and a half of water, plus a few drops of food coloring (used the stuff I bought for the Rainbow cake - yay, me!) and a sponge brush, and I was ready to go. 




I painted on a coat of gluey color stuff.



Obviously multiple coats were in order. It was also very streaky, but I figured that would even out after a few coats were applied.

Um, no.

This is how it looked after a few coats:


See? Streaky and a globby.



A couple of big drips formed while the last coat was drying,
so I tried to pick them off. When I did, every bit of the gluey painty stuff
peeled right off, down to the glass. Repainting did not help.


From a distance, not so bad. Up close, crap, crap, crappy.

Here's my recommendation. You want a blue vase? Buy a blue vase.

Pinterest fail.

The end.


11 comments:

  1. Perfect for a high shelf, though! It really doesn't look bad from a distance.

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  2. hows do they do that make it look so easy and a perfect result...I agree with Kristi it doesn't look bad from a distance - put some daisies in it see what happens... :)

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    Replies
    1. Smoke and mirrors, Marisa. Maybe if you took a ridiculously long time to paint each layer, it would turn out better, but I don't see how you can avoid the streaks or drips, really.

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  3. Funny because I was thinking about doing this pin myself! So glad you did it... its a shame it didn't work out.

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    1. Yeah, don't, unless you can figure out how to do it without it dripping.

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  4. I found a pin for X! https://www.pinterest.com/pin/257127459949726414/

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    Replies
    1. That's the best kid xray project ever! It just might be what I do this week!

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  5. Well, it makes for a great story, anyway!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! And I only paid 49 cents for the vase at the DAV Thrift Store!

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  6. I think the only way you can avoid streaks is via spray paint, and that doesn't seem remotely viable. Bummer it is a fail, and a sticky one at that.

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