What you need
In addition to a design idea for your flower, you’ll need:
Different colored tissue paper, 3 pieces cut into 6″ squares
Clear contact paper, 2 strips about 7″ wide running the entire length of the roll
Scissors
Pencil
2 different colors of glitter puffy paint
Wax paper
Clear Tape
Instructions
Here’s how I made my Valentine’s ‘Two Lips’ tulips for my casement windows that remind me of the upcoming annual celebration of love every time I walk by.
I used three different shades of pink from light to dark and sketched a tulip flower on one and traced that onto the other 2 sheets to make sure they were identical.
*Tip: If you are not comfortable with a freehand flower design, there are plenty of free templates you can find online that will work. Simply print it out and trace each sheet of tissue off of that.
Here’s how mine looked after I was done tracing.
Next, follow the pencil lines and carefully cut out each flower. Don’t worry if you have pencil marks on the tissue because you’ll cover that later.
Plus, keeping them intact as you cut them makes it much easier in the next step.
From here, I mixed up each flower with petals of the other to really drive home the stained glass effect. Since each flower has 6 individual petals, a simple way to keep them uniform is to combine 2 pieces from each flower with the others.
Peel back the paper cover from one sheet of contact paper and tape it down with the sticky side up. Carefully reconstruct your flowers by transferring the petals over to the contact paper.
*Tip: If you used a computer template, you can slide the printed flower underneath the contact paper and use it as a guide to make sure your flowers retain their shape as you transfer them over.
Again, don’t worry if your petals overlap slightly.
Once your flowers are in place, cover them with the other sheet of contact paper, sticky side down this time to sandwich the flowers in between the two sheets and smooth out the air bubbles.
Take a tube of glitter puffy paint (I used pink for all three tulips) and outline the entire flower making sure to include all of the lines to separate the stained glass panes within each.
These will need to dry at least 4 hours and preferably overnight.
In the meantime, spread out a sheet of wax paper and tape down the edges so it doesn’t shift while you create the stems. Using a different color of glitter puffy paint (I used purple), squeeze out three long stems, a few paint stripes thick each.
Set the stems aside and the next day, here’s how your tulips will look when they are completely dry.
Carefully cut out each flower by following the outside lines of the tulips, leaving about 1/8″ extra all the way around so the contact paper sandwich remains intact.
Take a few pieces of clear tape, fold them over and place them on the back of the flowers so that they will adhere to the windows and you don’t see any tape on the sides.
Slowly peel the paint stems off of the wax paper and these will stick directly to the windows without tape.
And now you’re ready to apply your tulips to the windows!
You might decide to group them together in a single window as a ‘bunch.’
Or perhaps a single flower per pane is more your style?
No matter how you display them, these colorful beauties are bound to bring a smile to your face this February!
What kind of Valentine’s Day stained glass window art do you want to try?
—
Rheney Williams adds a DIY element to all of her home décor pieces and window dressings are no exception! In addition to writing about craft window projects for Home Depot, Rheney has been busy updating her Charleston home with custom Lowcountry touches. To visit Home Depot’s windows page, click here
What do you think of this project? Let us know!