Polka Dot Painted Vase

A few weeks ago, I got the urge to paint.  We'd stopped by a discount store before going to the movies with some friends, and I got several glass vases and wine glasses that I could paint, so I pulled them out of the closet and got to work on one.  The nice thing about thrifting is that you'll run into TONS of glass items along the way - pick one up and turn it into something beautiful!

I'd seen some painted glasses with polka dots around, so I decided to give it a try for myself.  It's really simple - you can easily make this cute vase at home!

You'll need:
Clean, glass vase
4-5 different colors of paint (enamel or acrylic)
Small paintbrush
Paper plate
Krylon Glitter Blast Clear Sealer (if you used acrylic paint)
Newspaper

I decided to use blues and yellows for my vase - a darker teal, light blue, yellow, and cream.  Put a dollop of each color on your plate, and begin dotting away!

Starting with the darkest color first, make small dots in a random pattern all the way around the glass, covering the bottom 2/3 of the vase.  Then move to the next darkest color, and so on until you've cycled through all the colors you're using.  Once you've cycled through your colors once, start over!  You'll cycle through your colors over and over (10 to 15 times depending on how dense you'd like your dots).  As you're dotting away, pay attention to what colors are near where you're painting.  Try not to get too many light blue dots next to other light blue dots.

I decided to add some "fading dot legs" to the top 1/3 of my vase.  Once I was happy with the bottom 2/3 dots, so started painting dots that wiggled to the top, becoming more spaced out as they went up.  It gave it a fun, whimsical feel I'm really happy with!

Once the paint dried, I realized I'd used acrylic paint.  OOPS.  Acrylic paint will wash off of glass, so I knew that wouldn't do, so I headed to our local craft store to find some kind of clear glaze to cover the vase.  I ended up settling on Krylon's Glitter Blast Clear Sealer, and it worked like a charm.  It's original use is to seal in their glitter spray, but it did the trick with my acrylic pant too!  Moral of the story - if you've got acrylics laying around, don't bother buying all new enamel paint - just grab some of this sealer and you're ready to go!

I did three coats of the sealer, letting each coat dry for at least 30 minutes.

Then fill your vase with flowers and enjoy!  So much more fun than a plain glass vase.