Vintage Frame with Stained Glass Mosaic & Black Grout Tutorial

Recently I convinced a bunch of my friends to convene for another art event in our garage. This time it involved cutting glass and black grout. See, Luke made this really cool framed mosaic in art class and I wanted to make one just like it. My theory was that if an 8th Grader could do it, I could too. For the record, I do not also believe this to be the case with say like Algebra or French. Since I was too busy chit chatting and picking through the pretty glass to actually make mine, I had to get caught up. Since I was catching up anyhow, I opted to take some photos for a tutorial so you can try this at home.

Step one: Score some free glass pieces. They sell them in various craft stores, but I got creative and hit up a local stained glass place for their extra pieces. They were more than willing to hook me up. I now have LOTS of extra glass for the next big plan, which I have...

Step two:  Find a cool frame and paint it if you don't care for what it currently looks like. In this case I hit mine with some black spray paint and added gold speckles.

Step three:  Glue the piece of glass in with hot glue. We skipped this step when we were making them but mine is a frame where the glass slides in. I figured I should be safe. We also used white school glue to glue our pieces on. Since I was nearly out of white glue, I used hot glue. I think it would be preference as I can see both kinds of glue through the glass.

Step four:  Keep filling the frame with glass pieces. They can be easily cut with a glass cutting tool. I spent around $12 on mine at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon. Since I plan on making mosaics, it was well worth the money. You will want to leave a gap around the edges for the grout and between the pieces. I used a lot of big and chunky pieces on mine. I am thinking in this case the hot glue was a better option. I also used a piece of metal for variety.

Step 5:  Here is where it gets messy. You will need to add grout to all the cracks. I used a flat scraper to push it into all the crevasses between the glass pieces and then a sponge to clean off the rest. You can't clean too much or you'll take the grout out between the pieces. Then you let it dry.

The part Luke left out was that the textured glass would be hard to clean later. Basically I used a pick to really clean out all the grout that lodged itself in the textured parts.

Since I was planning on putting my frame on the window of the laundry room, I added a clear spray for good measure. Really love how it came out...I'll be back at some point with everyone else's projects. Planning my next project now!!