Rubber Band Frosted Vase or Glassware

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(Click on photos to enlarge)

 

DISCLAIMER:  However lovely these vases are, the spray frosting paint is NOT permanent.  After drying for 2 days, I was getting these ready to wrap as a gift and notice that there were worn spots and chips in the finish on the bottom where they had been setting on the counter.  So I carefully used my fingernail to 'scratch' a small inconspicuous area and the frosting easily came off.  So my final conclusion is that glassware sprayed with frosting paint will not be a lasting thing of beauty.  I'm so disillusioned.

I just ‘discovered’ another fun thing to do.  A friend posted a video from YouTube on FaceBook that shows how to make frosted designs in glass vases that look for all the world like etched work.  Lovely pieces, a relatively cheap craft and no 2 designs will be the same.  Use your browser’s search engine and search on ‘rubber band vase’.  You’ll see some beautiful pieces of work and also links to videos on YouTube that show you how to do it.  This is the very good video that I watched.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8wmHG_NTcs

First off, this is a list of needed supplies:

A piece of glassware
An assortment of rubber bands
A spray can of ‘frosting’ paint

The gal in the video I watched used 7” glass cylindrical vases but any shape or size can be used.  But unless you can find some really long rubber and wide bands, I’d stick to around this size.  As rubber bands stretch, they get thinner and you may want some wider bands. 

Wash the glassware in soap and water, then wrap the rubber bands around the vase in whatever design you want.  Make sure the bands are flat and not twisted.  I chose to do swirly, mainly cuz that’s what the video showed and I love them.  The more rubber bands you use, less frosting and more glass will be showing.  Fewer rubber bands will result in more frosting and less glass.  Get creative. 

The video instructed to clean the outside of the vase with rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip.  But I didn’t do that step because I didn’t know how the paint would interact with the alcohol residue.  So I just wiped the open areas with a dry paper towel to get rid of the fingerprints.

Take your project outside, turn the vases upside down and spray them with the frosting paint, following the directions on the can.  The gal in the video used Krylon Frosting but most every spray paint manufacturer has its own version.  I’m using Rust-oleum Frosted Glass and it worked just fine.  DO NOT overspray.  This paint is deceiving because the frosting effect doesn’t happen til after about 10 minutes so I really couldn’t tell if I was getting good coverage or not.  But trust me, three light coats are better than one heavy one….or in my case, 3 heavy ones as on my first try.  This picture shows what happened when I got too much paint on.  The wet paint pooled around the rubber bands and I had globs of paint left when I took the rubber bands off.  Grrr.

Let the paint fully dry for at least a couple hours above 50 deg F and remove the rubber bands and admire your vase.  I’m loving it!

I read the comments below the video and see that she used water pearls and battery operated submersible LED lights along with candles in some of her finished vases.  How very lovely.

Use your imagination and use other glassware, bottles, cups, candle holders, etc, and different colors of spray paint.  I can easily see these in sparkly gold or silver for the holidays or some of the fluorescent paints to accent a fun mod decor.  

A couple words of caution.…instructions on the paint I used said frosted articles could be gently hand washed with soap and water but not to put them in the dishwasher.  And it also states that the ‘frosting’ can be removed from glass with lacquer thinner or acetone.   Aha, a cure for my disaster vase above….strip it and redo it.

A DAY LATER:
I stripped the 'mistake' glass with paint thinner and washed it in lots of soap and water, rinsed well and redid it.  It turned out as nice as the other one.