How To Paint a Glass Bud Vase

This is my second Spring in this house and I’m always torn between leaving the flowers outside or bringing a few inside.

But when I saw more than a couple stems of freesia popping up, I had to clip a few. They were one of my favorites when I was a florist, being partial to flowers with a wonderful scent. When I had my shop most flowers didn’t smell, surprisingly . . . to me, at least.

Having been a florist with fresh flowers and then again at the craft store with artificials, you’d think I’d have a huge selection of vases. But no.

I can’t even remember when I picked this little milk bottle up but it’s the perfect size for a bud vase.

Since I’m adding some pops of turquoise in the living room, I decided to give it a little color. I chose a translucent stain rather than acrylic, spray paint or Mod Podge with food color. (I know, so many choices, right?) All of them really are nice but I’m pleased at how this turned out and wanted to share it with you in case you’ve never tried glass paint stains.

How To Paint a Glass Bud Vase

Supplies Needed:

glass bottle or vase

rubbing alcohol

cotton balls

flat paint brush, size to accommodate the vase

DecoArt Glass Stain

Step 1 – Wash the vase with warm soapy water, let it dry, then wipe the outside with rubbing alcohol to remove any oils on the glass from your hands.

Any time you paint glass you’ll want to wipe the part you’ll be painting with rubbing alcohol and allow it to air dry.

DecoArt has a variety of stains – crystal, glitter, frosted and more. I chose crystal because I wanted just a clear pretty turquoise.

Step 2 – Apply one light coat of glass stain.

As you can see from the photo, the stain is very, very light so it will take multiple coats. And patience.

When I’m painting a glass project I always have another project – or two – going along side of it. You can’t rush painting glass, even if you’re painting with acrylic paint. If you apply a coat over a coat that isn’t dry, you’ll have a mushy mess.

I will say that the glass stains dry faster than acrylic paints, so this was done easily in an afternoon.

Step 3 – Apply a second coat after the first coat is completely dry.

So you can see that on the wider part of the bottle it’s still very, very light, even after two coats. But the color is building up on the neck.

Don’t worry about the streaks. You won’t see them after you add water to the vase. Or you can paint a ton of coats.

This is after four coats and, yes, it looks streaky. However I wanted a light, translucent effect so I stopped with four.

I’ve recently noticed depression glass is coming back into style and I think it’s particularly lovely in spring and summer. If you like it too, head to your thrift store to get some plain glass pieces then a craft store to buy a few colors of glass stain.

Anyway, after you’ve applied all the coats you want, let it dry for 48 hours. (That’s what the manufacturer says but of course I didn’t wait and it was just fine). You can also cure it in an oven. Check DecoArt for more instructions on that.

Step 4 – Fill the vase with warm water and recut the flower stems and arrange however you like.

I’ve never been a big fan of adding an aspirin or pennies to water, although I know people who swear those things make flowers last longer. As long as you change the water every couple of days, recut the flowers again and make sure there’s no greenery in the water, the flowers should last fairly long, depending upon the species.

I tied a mini florist bow around the neck but a two loop bow or even a simple knot would be just as cute. It all depends on your taste and the room.

Did you notice how you can’t see the paint streaks? Yeah, I was pretty pleased about that.

I’m not a gardener by any stretch. I’m just fortunate that the landlord planted so many flowers before we moved here. But I really do enjoy having fresh flowers in the house.

How about you? Do you bring flowers in from your garden? Or do you leave them outside to enjoy?

Happy first week of Spring!

Colleen

about Colleen