So my insta feed delivered me a gem in the form of @mariahs_makes recycling packaging plastic into an absolutely adorable vintage style Halloween sun catcher (links at the end), and I was immediately inspired to make one myself.
For mine I decided to attempt a more 90s feel pumpkin pail with spooky lil treats falling into it, partly due to plastic supply limitations, honestly I’m a bit surprised at myself for not having more crammed in a cupboard but oh well, you work with what you’ve got lol.
Mariah used Gallery Glass paints, which are fantastic however rather spendy, so I hunted around for some more budget-friendly tubes and goddamn, the number of paint sets labeled as “glass paint” and claim they’re for making stained glass effects when in reality they’re just basic acrylics which may or may not let some light through depending on how thick or diluted you lay it.. Guys, tread carefully lol, odds are you have a better version of most of these sets in your paint box already, look for stuff that shows clear and consistent examples or has reviews with decent photos and is not vague or wishy washy with their language (yes it “adheres to glass”, but most paints will so that’s not really a helpful sentence is it, Barbara lol). Eventually I nabbed this “Homy Arty” set and figured huzzah, they’ll do.
Well..they juuuust about do, I’m not 100% certain that the financial savings were worth the faff but fuckit, the result still brings joy and I learned stuff along the way, and isn’t that the real goal lol. One thing to keep in mind is that saving money on art supplies often comes with a price in toil, I should’ve at least bought a Gallery Glass or similar quality black liner with a nice long tip but when these paints arrived I looked at the nozzle and thought “Eh it’ll be fiiiiiine”, not taking into account that the shortness of it would inevitably lead to major blobbage and unevenness. Entirely my own fault, my mistake was obvious after the first few millimeters lol so yeah if you do as I did, have a toothpick or something handy to coax any blobs back in line. The coloured paints needed a lot of shaking and slapping around as they’d settled like crazy and the reds in particular put up a hell of a fight (hence why the boiled scorpion candy is super lumpy lol). A few colours actually needed a second coat, which was a bit nerve wracking as I wasn’t sure if it would affect the clarity but thankfully it was chill.
I had an old christmas ornament box lid stashed away and always have a surplus of chains and link hoops (always gotta have hoops and chains dammit, everything can be jewelry if you’re not a wuss), so the full cost was about £12 for paints which I will totally be using again; noice. I definitely tempted bubbly doom by previously using the plastic as catchment for glitter pours, leaving it not deeply but prolifically scratchy but in the end bubbles were minimal and mostly easily dealt with and it hasn’t seemed to affect the adherence, we’ll see how it handles being in the sun for a week but so far I’m feeling positive.
The most time consuming part was curing the paints, they state they can be cured pretty quickly in an oven but obviously we’re not sticking plastics in the shiny new oven this day, so the other option is leaving them alone for 7 days (after which I’m guessing Sadako busts outta the tv and scares ’em stiff) to fully do their thing. I ended up linking them after five days because dammit my patience is limited (they felt pretty damn cured, if they were tacky or anything I would’ve left ’em the full seven). Connecting the chains was fiddly but perfect for bit of tinkering in front of the tv, aaand blammo;
Y’got ‘WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!
It has its flaws but I still love it lol, I adore stained glass vibes and obviously live for anything Halloween-shaped so this was a perfect lil craft to stumble upon, I can foresee a lot of anguishing over wanting to keep it up all year..
…or I could just make another generally spooky one for the rest of the year..
When I went to get the link for Mariah’s sun catcher I found that she’s also made a mini keychain version (they’d be going straight on my ears though cuz again, everything is jewelry) using shrink plastic and uuuuuuuuuuuuggggh I love them so muuuuch!
So yeah, go give @mariahs_makes a follow on instagram, she’s making magic out here.
Original sun catcher:
https://www.instagram.com/mariahs_makes/reel/DbjxEbsocxe/
Mini versions:
https://www.instagram.com/mariahs_makes/reel/DcPlPWlo9ye/
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