Crafty Pants Friday {4}

Pin It Finnnnaaalllyyy. Its Friday! This week was kind of a drag... But I've got me a craft to show you. I'm pretty excited about this one. I looove mercury glass, but its a weeee bit on the expensive side for me. So when I came across a DIY technique for faux mercury glass, I was all: shut. up.

Thank glob someone came up with a way to do this! I found it on Pinterest (of course), and you can find the lady behind the technique here. Its really quite simple, but at the same time, its not.

Yep. You ready for this? Alright then.

What I gathered:
Hurricane glass
Krylon Looking Glass Spray Paint
Vinegar
Water
Spray Bottle
Paper Towel
Candle
Sealer

Ok, first things first, clean out your hurricane. Mine was fresh from the store, but it had a layer of dust, so I took a damp paper towel and ran it along the inside until it was clean. Then make sure you dry it really well.

Now you're ready to spray. Go OUTSIDE. Seriously. This stuff is potent. Hold your hurricane in one hand, and spray with the other. I held it and turned it as I was spraying, using quick bursts, not a continuous stream. This paint is extremely runny so if you spray in a continuous stream, it will run all over the place.
Ask me how I know this.

The directions on the can say to spray 5 coats on the inside of the glass, letting it dry about a minute in between. Once that's done, its time for the distressing.

Its so cool! A mirror finish! Now you're going to need your vinegar, water, and spray bottle. Make a mixture of 50% water and 50% vinegar. The vinegar eats away at the paint, so when you start distressing, it makes perfect little pieces of paint flake off. Although if you're not careful, it will make BIG pieces of paint flake off.

Now spray the inside of the hurricane with the vinegar water mixture. Let it set for about 30 seconds to a minute. It depends how long the paint has been drying. The longer the paint has been drying, the longer the vinegar water will need to sit on the paint.

Now take your paper towel, and start dabbing, and then rubbing in a circular motion until paint starts to come off. Be very careful not to rub your hand around the top parts of the hurricane while you're distressing the bottom or you will have giant pieces on the glass where there is no paint.

Its a little hard to see the parts with missing paint because of the type of glass it is. Now that you have it distressed the way you want it, go back and spray 1 or 2 light coats of the paint on the inside. That way the patches with no paint will still have a shimmer and wont be completely see through. Once the last coat you put on is dry, spray a little sealer on the inside to keep it protected. Make sure all the paint is dry before you put a candle in it.

Your end result!

I tried to get a pic from all the different angles so you could see the different patterns. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. I plan on doing another, bigger one, that's a different type of glass. This swirvy pattern made it a little difficult to really see the distressing as well.

But I still love it!!

I hope you liked this! If your try it, send me pics so I can see how yours turned out!

One of the parties I'm linking up to: http://theivycottageblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/cowgirl-up-week-2.html

It's four parties in one! Go check them out!

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