Faux Stained Glass DIY Canvas Painting

I have always been fascinated with stained glass. Whether it is the impressive work of a Master illuminating the interior of a cathedral, or a simple piece of home decor, stained glass is always so beautiful to me. With the use of Mod Melts to mimic the look of soldering lines, I figured out a way of creating a stained glass look with a simple DIY canvas painting.

Supplies needed to make your own faux stained glass DIY canvas painting:

• Blank Prestretched Artist’s Canvas- your choice of size ( I used an 8×10)
• Mod Podge® Mod Melts Sticks
• Mini Glue Gun (must be mini to fit the Mod Melts)
• Acrylic Artist Paints (your choice of colors)
• Paint Brushes
• Eraser
• Your Choice of Image & Pencil

The first step is selecting the image you would like to re-create. Choose a simple image. A Pinterest or Google search for “Stained Glass Pattern” will pull up hundreds of images to choose from. Once you select your image, lightly hand sketch or trace the image onto your canvas using a pencil.

The canvases are pre-treated with gesso. A pencil eraser will work on the canvas, if you need to adjust your lines.

Once your image is drawn onto the canvas, load your mini hot glue gun with a Mod Melt stick.

A Mod Melt stick works exactly like a regular hot glue stick, but it is an opaque color. This particular pack is silver and gold colored. I was so excited to see these sticks! I used the silver, and it perfectly replicates the uneven soldering lines in stained glass pieces.

When the glue gun is hot, begin tracing your image on the canvas with a thin line of Mod Melt.

Try to work in small lines, it is easier to control the flow of the Mod Melt. Your lines will be imperfect. This is just fine. Soldering in imperfect. This adds to the charm of the end result of the DIY canvas painting.

Continue outlining the image until it is finished.

When the image is complete, use a Glue Runner Eraser to pick up any stray “cobwebs” of Mod Melt.

Look over your image. Since it is supposed to replicate stained glass, add small lines to break up any large areas. (For example- the border of my image is broken up into sections that would be more manageable if it were all glass.)

The Mod Melts will dry quickly like hot glue does. Then you can begin painting your image.

Choose smaller brushes. This is completely a preference thing- but I found while painting that flat edged brushes were the most helpful to get the paint right up to, and against the Mod Melt “solder” lines.

Partially mix your selected paint colors. It is important to have a variation of color when painting this DIY canvas painting project. This will mimic the look of stained glass.

Apply the color to the canvas allowing the colors to streak.

Continue to paint your canvas using your desired colors.

When your DIY canvas painting is complete, allow it to dry.

Using a Glue Runner Eraser, clean up any Mod Melt lines that may have paint on them. The eraser will effectively remove stray paint.

From start to finish, this DIY canvas painting was a fun Saturday project that only took me a couple of hours, even with my learning curve.

Both of my turtle-obsessed daughters are fighting over who gets to keep the finished DIY canvas painting in her room. It was such an easy project- we are planning on making more. After the image is outlined (by me) with Mod Melt, the girls can easily paint the canvas themselves! I hope you are inspired to try this DIY canvas painting project too!

Shaunte

Shaunte is a 30-something, chocolate-loving, SAHM from Utah. She has been scrapbooking since 1997, the dreaded era of photos cropped with deco scissors. Since then, her work has evolved into a clean, linear, photo-focused style. Her favorite subjects to scrap are her husband and five kids (never a lack for subject material there).