DIY Acrylic Stained Glass Ornament – Hummingbird

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you probably know that I love trying out various arts and crafts. I usually discover them through assorted kits; that’s how I fell in love with cross stitching, it’s how I first tried needle felting, and now I’m also learning to crochet with assorted DIY kits. Most recently, I was in a discount store when a new type of craft caught my attention: a DIY acrylic stained glass-like ornament. I couldn’t resist buying an assorted craft kit for around £3, so naturally, I bought it. Here is how working on this project went!

Contents of the kit

The box included all necessary supplies. There was a wooden stand and a blank acrylic cutout shape. There were also 6 small pots of acrylic paint, a tube of acrylic paint with a precise applicator, and a couple of brushes. And finally, there was a sheet of paper with the template. Interestingly, there weren’t any instructions in the box. There were a few small pictures on the box itself showing the steps for making the ornament, without any written instructions.

Contents of a DIY staned glass acrylic ornament. It includes a cut-out acrylic shape, six paints, paint brushes and a template. — DIY Stained Glass Acrylics Ornament – Hummingbird With Flowers

Making the outline of the design

The first step was to use the acrylic paint in a pen-like tube to add the dark outline between the pieces of the mosaic. It ended up being much harder than expected! In hindsight, I should have used a thin brush instead and painted the lines with patience. Drawing directly with the tube wasn’t precise enough, and the applicator got clogged up a few times, to then push out a large blob of paint. I suppose the uneven lines give the final result more of an old-school vibe, but the perfectionist inside me isn’t particularly happy with that. Oh well, too late to fix it!

Partially finished fake stained glass ornament. The black outline is done. — DIY Stained Glass Acrylics Ornament – Hummingbird With Flowers

Next, I proceeded to fill in the pieces of the mosaic. I started with the pale pink colour and filled the top flower. Painting on smooth plastic wasn’t easy – the paint moved around with every swipe of a brush, with nothing to stick to. I tried to paint smooth layers, but it wasn’t easy. It didn’t look too bad when laying flat on the table, but with a source of light behind it, you could see the uneven lines.

Partially finished fake stained glass ornament. One flower is painted with pink acrylic paint. — DIY Stained Glass Acrylics Ornament – Hummingbird With Flowers

I then painted the next flower, this time using the salmon and orange colours. I matched the colours from the printed template, but later realised that the photo of a finished ornament on the box had more shading and some of the cells seemed to be filled with a colour that was a mixture of a couple of paints from the set.

Partially finished fake stained glass ornament. Two flowers are painted with pink acrylic paint. — DIY Stained Glass Acrylics Ornament – Hummingbird With Flowers

I then filled in the turquoise details. I noticed that the set included 3 shades of blue/green paint (4 if you include the very dark green paint in the tube), but in the template there were 4 different shades used. From that point, I decided to improvise and divert from the template.

Partially finished fake stained glass ornament. Two flowers are painted with pink acrylic paint, and the hummingbird is green. — DIY Stained Glass Acrylics Ornament – Hummingbird With Flowers

I also filled the stems of the flowers with dark paint, which made the ornament look much better. The outline I made at the beginning wasn’t particularly even, and filling it with dark paint helped conceal it. Overall, the final result wasn’t particularly even and you could clearly see the brush strokes in the paint, no matter how many coats I added. I guess that’s just the nature of painting with acrylics on plastic! It’s particularly obvious with a source of light behind the ornament.

Finished fake stained glass ornament with a hummingbird and flowers design. — DIY Stained Glass Acrylics Ornament – Hummingbird With Flowers

Sudden realisation

Now, let me tell you a little secret. After completing the whole project, I discovered something about the plastic cutout shape. I realised that there was a peel-off film on it… on both sides! I took it off from the back of the plastic, but if I wanted to take it off of the front, it would remove all of the paint! Which, to be honest, wouldn’t be the worst thing – I’m not super happy with how my painting turned out, and that way I could start over. I did however use up most of the paints included in the set, so if I wanted to redo the whole project, I would need to use other acrylic paints.

I’m not sure if the protective film was supposed to be removed. The kit didn’t include any instructions, and I swear that it wasn’t obvious that it was there! I only noticed it by accident. Oh well.

Final thoughts

Overall, it was an interesting and unique project. I hadn’t seen any similar faux stained glass sets before and was curious to try it out. It was more difficult to complete than I had anticipated, mainly because the tube of paint for outlining the design wasn’t the most precise, and I didn’t draw the outline with enough patience. If I was to work on a similar project again, I would definitely make sure to do it slowly, with more accuracy. Overall though, it was a fun way to spend a couple of evenings. Probably not my new favourite craft, but fun nonetheless!

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