diy tortoise shell vase

Happy Monday, friends! We had some cooler weather over the weekend, it was

 exactly what I needed to get me in the mood for a fall project. I've always loved the

classic look and warm glow of tortoise shell and thought I'd try my hand at a DIY vase

to use with my fall decor. It's the kind of project that is so forgiving you can't mess it up.

The more imperfect the better, I promise!

Here's the super simple how to:

Most important: Random and imperfect is perfect!

I used a 10" x 7" glass hurricane from Michaels $5 (with 50% off coupon) here

and acrylic paint in Yellow Oxide, Burnt Umber and Black

I didn't purchase anything, I had all the items. Any vase will work that has a wide

 mouth allowing you to access the inside with a paint brush. 

I painted on the inside of the vase to keep the reflective character of the glass.

#1

 Wet your paint brush slightly (allowing the paint to bead up) and paint the inside of

 the vase.  Allow to dry, use a blow dryer if you're impatient. :)

#2   

Dab random splotches of burnt umber paint on top of the yellow. Don't load a lot

of paint onto your brush.

#3 

While burnt umber paint is still wet use the paint brush to spread the paint into

 larger splotches. Checking the outside of the vase as you go and adding more

burnt umber paint as needed, you want a lot of the gold covered.

#4

Next dab random splotches of black paint with a q-tip. Rolling it around a bit to get

irregular shapes. Try to keep the splotches from being in an even pattern. See above. 

#5

Check the outside of the vase and continue to add black as necessary.

At this point some of my brown and yellow paint had been wiped away from my

hand rubbing against it, just paint a dab more onto the glass.

Let dry. 

If, at any point you're not happy and would like to start over take your vase

to the sink and rinse away the water based acrylic paint. :)

  If you're happy with your vase, let dry and treat with care. I filled a tall cylinder with

water and my branches and carefully set inside. I did read you can set paint onto glass

by baking the piece, but I was fine with using mine for fall, and then cleaning it up.

 It only took about 20-30 minutes to complete and I'd rather not have to store another

 large vase. 

Have fun, and let me know if you try it!

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