Distressed Glass Made Easy ~ DIY Friday

It's amazing what a little bit of paint can do to cheapo thrift store glass isn't it?  A little bit of color and a little bit of elbow-grease can produce a distressed piece of decor customized to your color scheme.  Cheap.  Easy.  Fast.  My fav kind of DIY projects.  Check out how you can easily distress your own glass for a one-of-a-kind piece!

The first thing you need is a textured vase or bottle.  Dollar Tree is a great place to find these quickly or take your time and scour garage sales for unique vintage pieces or old liquor bottles (or save your own).  Oh, and Mason Jar's.  LOVE me some painted distressed Mason Jars.

 Krylon's Indoor/Outdoor Paint is awesome.  Bonds to just about everything.  This particular color is Hammered Copper.  It's sparkly too!  I opt for spray paint above canned paint or glass paint.  Why?  It goes on fast and dries fast.  And sometimes all I have is nap time to complete a project!  Any other SuperMom's know anything about that?

Spay a nice even coat but don't worry so much about perfection, we are going to distress it so don't stress!  I like to apply two different colors to add a little more depth and character.  Two contrasting colors is a nice way to customize your pieces to your decor.

 Let your pieces dry and then comes the fun part.  Skip the sandpaper and grab a piece of steel wool (pssssttt....the steel wool's a little bit easier on the nails too).

Using steel wool makes it easier to control the amount of paint that comes off.  That way the first color you applied can show through before you get down to the glass.

I made several of these pieces in different colors and sold them at a local craft fair.

I got to experiment with different colors and kept some of my favorite pieces.

Blue is my favorite color and I just loved the shape of this old bottle.  It's vintage liquor glass that I picked up at a garage sale a couple years ago.  It was missing the top so I got both pieces for $8.

Honestly you really can't mess this up.  If you absolutely hate the way you distressed it, like rubbed off too much (is that even possible?) you can always shoot another shot of paint on it and start over!  Might have to wait 'till the next nap time though.

I used both pieces on the 'kids' side' of my fireplace mantle to decorate for Valentines.  I went with reds & aqua's and it turned out pretty cute.  Check back next week for the full reveal of 'my side' too.  Romantic on one side, kid approved on the other!

Have you made your own distressed glass pieces?  Do you paint them to match your decor?  Any tricks to share?  =)