The Willowcrest Dollhouse Revisited Week 13

I had to create the "stained glass" for the living room bay ceiling opening. This is a little tricky to do and there isn't only one way of creating miniature stained glass. You can use a real stained glass technique if you like. You can also use 3M lead tape or even car decal tape to make the "lead". This is the way I do mines.

I am using the same materials as I did for the stained glass on the Beacon Hill Dollhouse. Clear nail polish and permanent markers. I printed out a stained glass design from the computer, that I can use as a template.

First, the clear acetate that I had did not work because it wouldn't frost over when painted with clear nail polish. The hazy frost caused by the nail polish is essential for creating the glass. I had to use some leftover acetate from the dollhouse kit windows and I barely made it since the pieces that were left were pretty small. I was able to find a piece that fits, almost to the letter, into the opening I created on the living room bay roof. Good thing this is not a very big opening.

I first gave the acetate a coat of clear, nail polish and it hazed over just fine. I like to coat the interior of the glass with the nail polish. I then positioned the stained glass template design under the acetate, with the nail polish coat facing upwards and I used the markers to color in the design, coloring over the nail polish. This transfers it to the acetate. This leaves the underside shiny so it looks like glass. That's the side that will be facing up and out towards the exterior of the dollhouse.

On this shiny, exterior side, I used a very fine tip brush and black paint to make the lines of the pattern. This looks like leaded glass. It requires patience but it's forgiving because it doesn't have to be perfect. In real stained glass, these lines look a little curvy so your hand doesn't have to be too steady. If you do go off the pattern a little more than you would like, it is easily fixed with a toothpick. The toothpick scrapes the acrylic paint right off the acetate so you can really fix up your lines with it. A craft knife also works but use it carefully to avoid scratching the acetate.

Painting the lines on the opposite, exterior, side of the design, makes the "lead" look slightly raised, the way they would be in real stained glass. I did not use a black marker to make the leaded lines because the black turns into a purple hue when used on acetate and wouldn't work.

It is a little difficult to see in the pictures but when a light is shined on the acetate, it looks just like stained glass. A pretty nifty project for a dollhouse.