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Window Treatments; Stained Glass

© Paula Dundore

Stained glass? Oh, it's beautiful but I could never afford the designs that I would want in my home.

That's what I thought too. I've always adored the elegant and festive atmosphere that a stained glass window creates. Recently, my husband and I have been creating beautiful works of art on our windows, and the transforming effect it has on our rooms is just what I was wanting.

We are using a craft paint called Gallery Glass. It's a gel like paint that is very similar to those T-shirt paints that come in small plastic squeeze bottles. You can also buy stencils if your not particularly artistic with your own designs. We started with the stencils but when we decided on an aquarium scene for our living room windows we made our own stencils. You need a bit of patience and a steady hand, but that's about it. My husband is the artist in the family but with the stencils I was able to create work just as good as his. The best part of all is that if you do not like what you have done, or want a seasonal picture to be taken off and on; you can gently peel it back off and save it for later.

Here is the process and some tips if you decide to try this out. The only tools you will need beside the paint, leading and plastic sheets would be something to use as a spreader like a toothpick. You also might want to use a very fine paint brush for blending some colors together.

The first step is to use your leading to trace out your design, either over your own stencil or one that you've purchased. This needs to be traced out , not on the window, but on a plastic sheet that you can buy with the Gallery Glass paints. After you have made those leading outlines it will need to dry for 24 hours. Remember what I said about patience? This is not an instant process, but well worth the wait.

The next thing to do is to decide what color you will fill the leading outlines in. You can also mix some of your colors by putting in dots of other colors and then blending with a toothpick or paintbrush. This too will need to dry for another 24 hours.

Then, when that is dry, you can gently peel it off and place it on your window. While the first design was drying, if you have enough plastic sheets, you can be making other

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