DIY Sea Glass Bottles ~ Fail

I’m looking at a craft fail here my friends.  This the tutorial that I re-pinned.

Here are the materials needed according to the tutorial:

• Blue & Green Food Coloring ( I used the Neon colors from McCormick just because I like how intense the color is)
• School Glue
• Dish Liquid
• Water
• Paint Brush
• Glass Jars, Bottles, etc.

And the instructions:

• Mix the school glue and water as if you were making homemade mod podge.  WHAT?  You don’t know how to make your own mod podge?  So easy!  Just mix 2-3 parts glue to 1 part water.
• Add a few drops of blue and green food coloring.  Add more blue or green depending on your preference.
• Add just a little dish liquid.  How much is just a little…well, not too much!
• Blend well.
• Now, carefully paint the mixture onto the outside of the glass and let it dry.  Watch out for being too streaky or leaving drips.  Don’t worry, if you mess up – just wash  and start over.

The end result should look like this:

See how they are brightly colored, yet have a frosty finish, but are still translucent?  And you know what she said about not getting streaks or drips?

Yeah, I couldn’t accomplish that.  I bought exactly the same food coloring.  I tried mixing glue and water, making a thick version and a more watery version.  The more watery version definitely dripped everywhere.  But a thick version dripped too, just in slower bigger globs.  I tried a few different brushes, from a tiny one to a sponge one and finally settled on a 2″ brush because that got the job done the fastest and was easiest to coat it without lots of brushing (meaning lots of brushmarks).  I didn’t mix in much dish liquid, just a tiny bit.  I also only used a few drops of food coloring.

                                  

From a distance they are ok, and even the photos are alright.  But in real life, up close, they don’t look so hot.  Not hot enough to say, display on a table or a shelf, or put out during a party and say “look what I did”.

See the drippy mess?  But I was hopeful with a nice, even, opaque coverage on the wine bottle.

I had really good coverage on this one too.

Once they dried, I was underwhelmed.  The blue is so faint that it just looks like regular glass that has that green tint around the edges.  The green is really strong, but up close it is drippy.  And this is a pretty normal color for glass anyway, but it isn’t frosty.

See the drips on the green bottle?

I’ve tried this two more times since with real Mod Podge and more food coloring to try and get the blue to show.  I tried it with and without the dish liquid.  None of those turned out any better, and the brushstroke problem just got worse. So I think I am officially giving up on this one unless someone has a solution.  Sad face.