How to Color Glass

 Can you believe it is the end of May? Time sure is flying.

Now on to the subject at hand.....
I have seen tinted bottles throughout blogland.

via Carolyn's blog Homework

via Creative Little Daisy

via Aimee @ It's Overflowing

 Back several weeks ago I spotted the bottles (below) in the cutest little metal carrier while wondering around 'The Christmas Tree Shoppe'. I knew they would be perfect for tinting.

After purchasing these and a few other things I ran down to Michaels and purchased the largest jar of gloss Hodge Podge I could find. I already had several tubes of gel food coloring at home, so there was no need to buy any.

The first step was to wash and dry the jars & bottles thoroughly. Then I had to decide what colors I would use. For the bottles, I decided to use yellow and green, since those two colors are in the family room curtains.

Now, I do not have exact measurements on the ratio of H.P. and water. I just kind of eyeballed it.

In a plastic cup, I poured in the H.P. and added a couple teaspoons of water and mixed well. It wasn't a very watery consistency but it wasn't thick. I know it doesn't help y'all a lot.

Then I added in about 8 drops of yellow food coloring and mixed well.

Preheat oven on the warm setting, my oven only drops down to 170.

I poured the mixture into the bottle and rolled the bottle until it was completely covered with the mixture.

I then held the bottle over the cup so the excess would drain, next the bottles were placed upside down, so they could drain on several paper towels.

They sat this way for about 30 minutes while I went on to the green bottles.

Once the 30 minutes was up, I removed the bottle from the paper towels and wiped any excess mixture of the rim and place them in the oven. *Now this is where I discovered that you should make your tint mixture either very water or they need to drain a lot longer than 30 minutes.

Here are the yellow bottles in the oven after 30 minutes.

It actually took the bottles one and a half hour to completely dry. Unfortunately, there is a rather thick collection of mixture dried on the bottom of the yellow bottles.

That is ok though, we learn from our mistakes.

Now the green bottles drained for an hour before they were put into the oven for one hour.

After that hour they were removed from the oven ***MAKE SURE YOU USE OVEN MITTS TO REMOVE THEM, THEY WILL BE HOT***. I left them to cool for 30 minutes.

I placed the bottles back in the basket, threw in some fake flowers and placed it on one of my burlap end tables.

 **Eventually you will get to see the finished family room.**

The red mason jars, which will be used in the dining room, were worked on while the bottles were cooking and draining. When I mixed up the red I just kind of winged it. I cannot tell you how many drops of red food coloring I used, I just kept adding until the mixture looked right. After making sure the jars were covered thoroughly I let them sit upside down for a little over two hours.

I cooked them in the oven for 90 minutes. Removed them and let them cool for 30 minutes also.

Two of the five jars I purchased will be used to hold cut flowers. So, I didn't tint them.

**Finished dining room and decorated jars will be revealed in a future post.**

Great rainy day craft, not to mention inexpensive or free (if you already have everything), which we all love

Enjoy your day!

♡ Tina ♡