Just Paint It Blog

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • About
    • My Stuff
      • My House
      • My Hubs
      • My Paintings
        • Illustrations
        • Murals
  • Projects
    • How To/PIY
      • PIY – Paint It Yourself
      • Quick Stuff
      • Tutorials
      • Videos
    • Techniques
      • Antiquing & Distressing
      • Blending Colors
      • Color Wash
      • Decoupage
      • Drawing
      • Dry Brushing
      • Faux Finishes
      • Glazing
      • Highlighting
      • Shading
      • Stenciling
      • Transfers
    • Home Decor
      • Accessories
      • Furniture
      • Holiday Decorating
      • Seasonal Decorating
    • Crafts
      • Dollar Store Crafts
      • Holiday Crafts
        • Christmas Crafts
        • Halloween Crafts
      • Kids Crafts
      • Seasonal Crafts
    • Paint Types
      • Chalk Paint
      • Chalkboard Paint
      • Glitter Paint
      • Metallic Paint
      • Pearl Paint
      • Specialty Paints
      • Spray Paint
      • Watercolor Paint
    • Paint Surfaces
      • Paint Canvas
      • Paint Fabric
      • Paint Glass
      • Paint Metal
      • Paint Paper
      • Paint Plastic
      • Paint Walls
      • Paint Wood
    • Submit Yours
  • Shop
    • A.R.T. – Art Related Things
    • Original Art
    • Pet Portraits
    • ClipArt & Printables
  • Portfolio
    • Pet Portraits
  • Contact

How to make an easy Window Mural

April 1, 2010 By Colleen Jorgenson 9 Comments

This project was such fun! I used Plaid’s Gallery Glass. It’s a great product line to use on any glass – windows, mirrors, glass tabletops and even lampshades.Light still filters in, but you get decoration & privacy, which is what my mother wanted in her side light.

Here’s what it looked like before – just a plain ol’ window.

Window Mural with Gallery Glass

We thought about blinds or a drape, but the cost for a custom-made anything was too much. I even tried hanging a scarf with knobs above the window. It looked okay but was too ‘much’, you know?

Now I will admit that Gallery Glass takes some practice, but it’s sooo worth it! One thing you’ll want to do before you start is study some stained glass – how it connects, how many pieces of glass they use, etc. You want to make yours have ‘leading’ just like real stained glass so it really looks authentic.

You’ll need the following Gallery Glass products:

  • Liquid Leading
  • Mylar Leading Blanks
  • Leading Strips
  • assorted Window Color(s)
  • Crystal Clear, if desired, to fill in blank spaces
  • Treasure Silver

Other helpful supplies include an craft knife, cotton swabs, and plastic toothpicks. I use the toothpicks to smooth the liquid color out while it’s still wet.

The first thing, however, is to get an inspiration picture. I googled stain glass images to get ideas of actual stained glass. It’s helpful to see how artisans cut their glass. It’ll help you to add more realism to your project.

If you can’t find an image you like, or need help designing one, email me. I’ll be glad to help with the line art pattern.

Next, you place the mylar blank over the pattern and pour the ‘leading’. If you’ve ever done cake decorating, it’s a lot like that. It takes a little practice, but it’s really easy once you get the hang of it.

After you’ve poured the entire design, set it aside and allow it to dry – approximately 8 hours, depending upon the weather.

Then ‘pour’ the color. I like to mix my colors – 2 or 3 greens, etc. It pours out cloudy, but dries translucent. This also takes a few hours to dry.

It’s fun to see it come to life as it dries, but this project does take a couple of days, just because of the drying time involved.

Plus, you’ll need some flat areas to store the mylar sheets. Particularly if you have little ones roaming around the house!

I poured two colors for the bamboo stalks as well.

Once you pour the color, take a toothpick to spread it out and make sure it fills in completely. Otherwise it’ll tear when you remove it from the mylar.

Another tip, take a nut pick (it comes w/Gallery Glass kits) and tap the under side of the mylar to remove any bubbles.

It’s like when you ‘burp’ an unbaked cake to remove air bubbles. You might not get all of them out, but some bubbles add to the realism.

Once your pattern is fully dry, peel it off the mylar and position it on to your window.

Then I apply leading strips all around the perimeter of the window. You can buy these separately or just pour your own.

The connect the pattern pieces to the perimeter leading to create the illusion of glass pieces. Again, you can use pre-poured leading strips.

Once you have all your leading in place, take your liquid leading and ‘dot’ the connections. It’ll look like little soldering joints.

When those dry, take a cotton swab & add a little Treasure Silver to the joints. This gives it dimension and really looks like actual soldering.

Finally, I filled the entire window in with Crystal Clear, just dabbing with an old paintbrush. You could use color, if you want.

That’s it! Beautiful faux stained glass!
It looks almost as good from the reverse side as it does the front.

You can see the full picture tutorial here.

Do you have a window or mirror that needs some sprucing up this spring? Try Gallery Glass. It’s fun, easy, and fully removable – so if you’re in an apartment or rental, it is perfect. Plus, it’s much, much cheaper than actual stained glass. You can clean it with a damp cloth and it’ll last until you decide to take it down.

Who said murals had to be only painted?

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Comments

  1. Fauxology says

    May 7, 2009 at 1:22 am

    What a great post — the end result is beautiful, Colleen! I’ll have to look into this…

    Reply
  2. Param says

    May 13, 2009 at 9:37 am

    Beautiful!

    Reply
  3. Caroline says

    May 18, 2009 at 9:52 pm

    You’re berry, berry talented!!! But, I already knew that. ((:^>

    Love the new blog. I’m bookmarking it and will be back often.

    Reply
  4. Enchanted Rose Studio says

    April 1, 2010 at 10:30 pm

    I’m a fan of Gallery Glass, Colleen! It blends beautifully, but you never really know how it looks until it dries and always dries better than you think! ha!

    Love the sidelites, beautiful pattern! Great tutorial! Thanks!

    Cheers!
    Tina

    Reply
  5. Lori says

    April 3, 2010 at 11:10 pm

    Very pretty!

    Thanks for joining Get Your Craft on Thursday. Please join me next week for another wonderful party!!

    Please stop by next week I am having guest over each day and I would love for you to tell them HI!

    Reply
  6. Farah says

    June 6, 2010 at 3:17 am

    Fantastic,love it, you did a great job, the pattern iws beautiful , your idea is marvellous…

    Please check. I have something new

    http://craftaworld.blogspot.com

    Reply
  7. Mutuelle sante says

    August 10, 2011 at 8:38 am

    Thanks a ton it is a very good help, now to make an easy winmural is definitely very easy by using your recommendation. Thanks

    Reply
  8. Pam Chamberlain says

    October 20, 2019 at 7:41 pm

    Hi Colleen, beautiful job!!!
    GG is kind of hard to find now in CA, but I did find some in the garage, from when it first came out. I bought allot of it when Carol from Plaid was on CVN/QVC
    I have 3 huge windows and did them all with birds, butterflies–oh my LOL
    I just took it off a couple of months ago, so U can imagine how long I had it been up there I did it the hard way-taped the pattern to the outside of the window and used the leading etc. from the inside!
    U have inspired me to do a new design, thank U!! But this time I’m trying it Ur way, with mylar.
    Thanks again for the inspiration, Pam

    Reply
    • Colleen says

      October 21, 2019 at 12:33 pm

      Hi Pam! I haven’t been to Michael’s in a while but last time I was there Martha’s glass line was taking up half an aisle. I can’t believe you did a window with everything directly on the window! Oh, you’ll love doing designs on mylar and then just sticking it up where you want! Let me know how it turns out!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    About Me

    Hi there! I'm Colleen, a self-taught artist, writer and blogger, among other things. You don't get to be old enough to order off the Denny's senior menu without accomplishing a few things in life. Read More…

    Recent Posts…
    • Patriotic Fourth of July Printables June 25, 2019
    • Camping Coloring Pages June 15, 2019
    • How to Paint Purple Iris January 28, 2019
    • How to Paint a Teddy Bear January 24, 2019
    • How to Paint Tulips January 21, 2019
    Comments…
    • Colleen on DIY Painted Retro Shoes
    • Catherine Fearing on DIY Painted Retro Shoes
    • Colleen on Glossy Wood Tone – My “Secret Weapon”
    • Melissa on Glossy Wood Tone – My “Secret Weapon”
    • Colleen on Easy Faux Verdigris

    Subscribe via Email

    Get updated delivered directly to your inbox!

    Art Digital Downloads

    Archives

    Pretty Handy Girl Fun DIY Gifts!

    PHG_zazzle-banner

    Videos

    Error type: "Forbidden". Error message: "The request is missing a valid API key." Domain: "global". Reason: "forbidden".

    Did you added your own Google API key? Look at the help.

    Check in YouTube if the id muralmaker1 belongs to a . Check the FAQ of the plugin or send error messages to support.

    Instagram

    Google+

    Facebook

    Pinterest

    Etsy

    Copyright © 2023 Just Paint It!/Colleen Jorgensen · website by Houndstooth Media Group