I have successfully figured out how to diy stained glass as a window decoration at home. It’s not actually glass. It’s cellophane and cling wrap and paper. But the effect is pretty cool and more or less what I was hoping for.
DIY Stained Glass:
You need:
Colored cellophane pieces (got mine at a Daiso, but I think any craft store and some party supply stores sell them)
Cling wrap (the annoying stuff you probably keep in the kitchen that only likes to stick to itself and glass)
Cardstock
Glue
Tape
Iron/ironing board
Parchment paper (not wax paper! Parchment paper, like you also probably keep on a roll in the kitchen)
A design plan/measurements
Something to cut everything with
Permanent Marker
Okay. I’m not even going to be deceitful, I designed my plan in Illustrator and cut the cardstock with a cricut. This is definitely the easy/consistent way to do it if you have those things at your disposal. And honestly? I think a lot of libraries have that sort of thing, so if you don’t have it, might be worth checking with a library you can get to. I think it’s still doable to someone suitably determined without those things, it would just take more time and patience and probably a box cutter or xacto knife to cut pieces by hand. You could also probably use like. Electrical tape in place of the card stock. Anything to hold the panes that won’t melt under direct heat.
Plan the size, shape, pane placements, and make sure it’ll all fit the way you want. I measured my window, figured out how big I wanted it to be, made the lines in Illustrator and cut out a test run on my cricut to make sure I had it how I wanted it. I also planned out which panes needed to be what colors at this point.
Then get your shape ready. Cardstock, tape, foil, idk, it needs a frame to give it structure. I used black cardstock because it looks like the joinings of actual stained glass well enough for me. I cut out my design with ~1/2 inch lines between the panes. Plenty of space to cut the panes a little carelessly and have the rough edges hidden. Set this aside for the next step.
Making the panes is next. We need cling wrap and cellophane for this. I used about 1/4 of a cellophane sheet at a time, so it was a little easier to move around. Lay down cling wrap a little bigger than your cellophane, put the cellophane on it, and then put down another layer of cling wrap. Sandwich the cellophane. Press it as flat as possible and push out as much air as you can. I used a card to burnish it, and make sure the edges are sealed. It’s mostly important that the layers aren’t going to shift on you. Do this for as many sheets as you think you’ll need. It’s okay to make less than you need and come back to put more together later.
We are done setting aside the paper shape. Put that out on the work surface, and start using it as a pattern to trace out the panes on the sheets you just sandwiched. You can just set the cellophane sheets on top of the pattern to trace so you don’t risk marking up the pattern and can trace a little bigger than the actual holes. The lines will hide the messy edges and you have a little leeway if anything shifts. I did mine one color at a time and laid them out aside in order so I didn’t lose track of which piece went where. Cut them out. This is probably the most time consuming part.
Once you have all your pieces and your pattern/outline shape, it is time to assemble it.
First you’re going to glue a fresh bit of cling wrap to the pattern on whichever side you done want facing out. Keep it as flat as possible and let it dry. Then, put your panes on the glued cling wrap. They’ll pretty much stay wherever you put them since they are also cling wrapped and that stuff loves to stick to itself. Once all the panes are in place, lay another fresh sheet of cling wrap over the whole thing. So you should have paper layer on the bottom, cling wrap glued to it, panes stuck to that, and cling wrap again on top of it all.
Take the whole thing to the ironing board. You are going to melt plastic. Put a piece of parchment paper bigger than the project on the ironing board. Put the project on the parchment paper. Put another big piece over it. You do not want to melt plastic onto the ironing board or the iron. It won’t stick to the wax paper, but it will ruin your iron and ironing board if the cling wrap gets on it. Set the iron to the highest non-steam setting you have. I did mine at whatever the “wool” setting means. Steam will cloud the plastic (I did fuck this up on a test piece). Iron it slowly, let the iron sit over one spot 10-15 seconds, then move it. The goal is to basically shrink-wrap the cellophane and melt out some of the creases. The glue should keep it in place and keep it from shrinking/shifting off the pattern. Just keep an eye on it, and when you’re happy with how it looks, stop ironing it.
Trim off the excess and cling it straight to the window. Tape it or something if it doesn’t want to stay, but mine went right up so I didn’t need to tape it.
