The Pintester Movement - Sea Glass

I am so excited to be a part of Sonja Foust's Pintester Movement!  Her blog is hilarious and makes me feel a lot better about all of my craft/cooking fails.  It always feels better knowing that you are not alone in something.  She has also been such an inspiration to me.  She bravely takes on Pinterest pins, knowing that failure may be the final result, but pushes on anyways.  I would never try as many things that I have found on the internet if it wasn't for her.

To celebrate this moment, I decide to finally do the first craft of this blog!  In true Pintester fashion, I decided to go with something that I have been wanting to do, but the outcome seemed bleak.  I went with turning regular glass into something that looks like sea glass.

The original source for the pin is a photo album with no instructions; only a before and after photo.  There were instructions on the pin itself, but that is like trying to receive instructions through a round of telephone (I used to LOVE that game in elementary school).

According to the pin, you just take plain glass, mix food coloring and Elmer's glue, and paint it on.  There were no specifications on what type of Elmer's glue, so I went with "Elmer's Glue All" (only because the container of cheaper school glue was so old it broke apart in my hands) and there were also no specifications for what type of food coloring to use.  Liquid seemed like it would mix better, so I went with liquid.  

Then, naturally, I couldn't find my liquid food coloring.  I KNOW I have some somewhere, after all I bake a lot.  I ended up giving up the hunt though and running out to the store to buy more.  Earlier in the week I had bought some cheap candle holders.  I was planning on using one I already had, but I didn't want to end up all moody if I ruined it.

As for the proportion of glue to food dye, I just glooped some glue onto a paper plate and mixed drops of food dye until it looked green enough.

I had some difficulty painting the first one.  I was using my super cheap dollar store brushes, because there was no way I was going to use one of my good (or even decent) ones with glue.  However, because the glue was so thick and sticky (giggity), bristles kept on pulling out of the brush and I would have to pull it off of the candle stick and quickly touch up that spot.  There were visible brush strokes, and I did not have high hopes for this project.  Here is the freshly painted product.

I trekked on with the other two pieces, since it felt like a waste to give up and throw out a mound of dyed glue.

After they dried, I was actually quite impressed with the result.  For not having any real instructions they still looked okayish and vintage.  

There were some problems, like drips from putting the glue on a little too thick...

And bubbles from using a cheap brush while trying to work fast.

However, all the brush strokes faded away.  Overall, I call this a win.  I can't display it on my kitchen table where people can inspect it, like I originally planned, but I can put it at a slight distance and it will still look nice.  They will probably end up on the top of a book shelf or up on the catwalk.