Quite the improvement over the original… take a look – this is what my $4 find looked like when it came home with me. (For an extra $1, I picked up a different glass shade that was in better condition, and swapped it out. )
Some brown spray paint on the base was step 1 toward updating the 80’s look, but the real fun was designing the shade.
The glass paint sprayer in this line is awesome. Seriously. I haven’t used anything like it before, personally. You mix up the shade you want to spray 50/50 with either a gloss or satin spray medium. (If you’re trying it out for the first time, I used about 1/2 ounce of each – 1 ounce mixed. It’s hard to guess how far it will go if it’s the first time you’re using it). Let me also warn you, don’t be tempted to shake the sprayer once the paint reservoir is attached. I have a tendency to shake my spray paint quite a bit, but it won’t spray if you shake it – just keep it nice and level and you’ll get a fantastic coat of paint.
So I sprayed the shade all over with a light, frosty aqua blue base coat (the colors in my office are shades of brown and aqua).
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When that was fully dry, I used some of the new silkscreens to stencil some butterflies on it in a metallic bronze. The silkscreens are awesome in that you can create these intricate designs. I love the veining in the butterfly wings – something you wouldn’t be able to get from a traditional stencil. You just cut out the silkscreen you want to use, and place it on your glass where you want it. Add a line of paint across the top of the design – you’ll be spreading it down over all the tiny holes in the silkscreen.
Now, use the paint spreader (it’s just like a rubber spatula) to kind of squeegee the paint downward, to fill in the silkscreen design. All this is doing is getting a thin, even coat of paint over the whole design. (I scraped the edges, too after I took this photo.)
You want to spread it fairly quickly – because a really thin coat of paint like this dries within a few minutes, and if it dries in the silkscreen, it will pull off instead of sticking to the glass. But squeegee-ing it on is a snap, and only takes just a few seconds. It’s pretty slick!
As soon as your paint is spread, peel off the silkscreen. You will want to rinse it out while it’s still wet.
I used three different sizes of butterflies on my lampshade. By the time I got through with each one once, the first one was dry enough to be able to use it again. I stenciled the whole shade in less than 10 minutes.
All that was left after I gave it about 30 minutes to dry was to re-assemble it, and give it a new home! I have to admit, these photos just don’t do it justice. The metallic bronze has a beautiful shimmer to it, which is of course really difficult to capture on a curved surface. ;)
I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with Plaid Crafts and Blueprint Social, but the ideas and opinions in this post are all my own.
Take a look at what some other great bloggers are creating with Plaid’s new Martha Stewart glass paints!
That is SO lovely! It looks great while turned on, too. Great job!
love, love, love this!! I was thinking it was a vinyl stick on before I started reading…this is simply beautiful!
I LOVE what you did with the butterflies. Your new lamp is gorgeous! :)
Thanks for linking up with us @ Keep Calm & Link Up this week. We're thrilled you chose to join our party! Can't wait to see what you link up next week friend :o)
Oh, Wow! That turned out so pretty! Thank you for sharing. Visiting from One Creative Weekend. Would love it if you would share this at my Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com/2012/09/make-it-pretty-monday-week-13.html Hope to see you at the bash! Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse
What a cute makeover. Love the color combo and that pretty butterfly!!
Adrianne, this turned out BEAUTIFUL, it looks like you bought it at a high end boutique! I love the color, and I have two little girls who would go wild for the butterflies!
Carlee
http://www.ladybirdln.com
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http://babyemilycloset.blogspot.co.uk/
That paint is the coolest! And that lamp looks fabulous, great job! Thanks for sharing at The Fun In Functional!
Wow Adrianne! That turned out just so beautiful! My mother would love that lamp, her favorite color and she loves butterflies! What a great use of those Martha Stewart paints! xo, Kimberly
that is pretty neat! Love it.. specially re-vamping with Martha Stewart! ;)
XO
Angie
Gorgeous! I really love the make over!
Adrianne, I love your *new* lamp. You did a fabulous job with the transformation!
That lamp is so cute! I don't know how to thrift shop, but we did manage to make a little craft with some stamps :)
Ohhh.. how stinkin cute! I love the colors that you used. I took one of Ryley's old sippy cups, wrapped twin around it and made it a 'vase'. Does that count as thrifty? lol.
Wow.. I love it.. And it looks kinda easy to do.. Great Job…
The butterflies are so cute!!
Beautiful, especially the night shot. I love that color combo, too!
This is beautiful! I have tried the Martha Stewart paint sprayer and love the effect. But what bothers me is for the price of the kit it doesn't last very long. You can't think you're going to get the same amount as from a can of spray paint (which is a lot cheaper, of course.) Great job.
I love the butterflies! Beautiful :)
Great Job!! I LOVE the butterflies and the colors. The lamp looks much better than when you started!
nice job1!!! I would have never thought of painting glass…definitely going to check this out! thanks for the hip tips!
This turned out beautiful! I LOVE how it looks all lit up too :)