guest tutorial blogger: taylor of MaryJane and Galoshes

so i don't get out much. no, not like as in out of my home, it feels like i'm always running full speed somewhere or need to be doing something. no, i mean as in i don't get out much of my little corner of the blogworld. see, i know there's like a lot of awesome tutorial blogs out there. i competed against 9 of them in SYTYC...but with quite a busy schedule (parenting, volunteering, church volunteering, running a home, running a shop and blog, wanting to seeing my husband, have time in there to create new things, and blah de blah)...my staying in the "know" of other blogs has gone down to almost "0". (i have a confession i quit checking my google reader like a month ago because it had 1000+ on it for over 3 months. i KNOW!)
BUT i do in fact take note of where my traffic is coming from and one site that directs a lot of traffic my way is kari's blog U-Create (hi kari!) so i went over there one day to say thanks for featuring me and what did i see?

a little button that showed this amazing tutorial of a new blogger. it just so happens that that tutorial actually made me kind of jealous that in the past i didn't care that much for paper and scrap booking stuff. so what did i do? i went out and bought that scallop punch thingy. oh yes i did.

i'm really glad i went over to that tutorial because i met taylor and she is sweet as can be and pretty talented too in the graphic arts stuff. check out her etsy shop! (taylor i love my tags btw!)
but enough from me...give a welcome to taylor:

Hi! My name is Taylor and I write MaryJanes and Galoshes. I first found V and Co. watching the first season of So you think your crafty and fell in love with her blog. In mid January (of this year) I started MJ&G, I'm very new here and hope you will come say hello. So needless to say I'm thrilled that Vanessa asked me to be here today and can not wait to show you guys how to make this faux antique glass window (it's much easier than you think).

What you need:
Thrifted Frame
Clear Silicone Caulk (I used windows and bath) either in a squeeze tube or with a caulk gun
Acrylic paint or color printed image
Spray paint (optional)
Joker playing card (or something to spread your caulk evenly with)
Desired image printed in reverse (if using paint technique)

First take your frame apart. I found an ugly goose picture at a local thrift store for $4. It doesn't matter what the back looks like or how it's attached as long as you can remove it. You won't be using it in the end so recycle it for something else. I chose to spray my wood frame a mat black.

Acrylic Paint Method-
Remove your glass and clean it well. If you need an image to trace, I used my logo for mine and there was no way I was going to get the letters without a guide, so I printed it out to fit my frame. You need to print your image in reverse as you will be painting it on the inside of your glass so it needs to be backward to start. If your frame is large like mine you may need to print your image on a few sheets and tile it together (paint works great for this as photoshop will not tile! Create your image then open in paint and print).

Lay your image down and place your glass on top of it. Use your acrylic paint to paint your image on the inside of the glass. Let your paint dry for several hours, or over night, just to make sure it doesn't smudge when you apply your silicone.

Now for the fun part. Silicone is stinky so make sure you work is a ventilated area. I used the $3 tube of great value stuff from walmart, any brand will work as long as it's clear. Set your glass so that the longest side is horizontal. You will work your way vertically with several glob and drag rows. Pile up a big glob of silicone, grab your playing card (or what ever you have to spread the stuff) and drag it down to the bottom like your squeegeeing a silk screen. You want the little bubbles and lines that it leaves behind so don't worry about that, but make sure you don't put it on to thick or it will dry cloudy. You can go over it as much as you like until it's a thin bubbly layer about 1/8 inch thick.

You can add a slight wavy motion to your drag if you like the wavy glass shown in the blimp example.
It will be dry and ready to hang within an hour. If your frame had tabs to hold the back in you just need to insert the glass, bend the tabs back and hang. My back was pinned in so I shot a couple staples into the frame so that they stuck out a bit which held my glass in just fine. Voila! Looks like old antique wavy glass! It looks even cooler if you hold it up to the light so if you have a big window this would look great hanging in it, just add a chain to hang it from!

Image Transfer method-
Clean your glass and apply the silicone in a thin layer as described above. Print your image out on a laser printer, it may also work with ink jet I just haven't tried it. Trim around your image as close to the edge as you can. Lay down your silicone on the glass and immediately place your picture, image side down, on to the wet silicone lightly pushing it in so your ink will stick when you take the paper away. Let the Silicone dry. Once it dries soak the back of the image paper and with your fingers, a toothbrush or a damp cloth rub the paper away until it's all gone. You can rub a little extra in areas you want to distress your image. The image will be transparent when our done and remember that white areas disappear when the paper is gone so images with a lot of white are not a good choice.

I hope you were inspired today! Thank you for having me, don't be a stranger! -Taylor

wow taylor! i can honestly say i would never have thought that up in a million years! thanks for continually bending the rules! make sure you guys check out her blog and see what she comes up with next!


v and co loves her sponsors! go check out this pillow by mady sunshine!