DIY Mercury Glass Letter Ornaments
I saw these gorgeous mercury glass letter ornaments last year, and have been in love with them ever since. But being glass, they were heavy and fragile, not to mention not baby-friendly. So I knew a DIY was in order. I searched high and low for acrylic versions, and came up with a DIY to make your own using clear epoxy and a little bit of spray paint. The best part of this DIY is that you can make them in any color you’d like, or leave the letters clear for a lucite look!
What you’ll need:
– Clear resin or EasyCast (found at craft stores or Amazon)
– letter molds for casting (I got mine here)
– Mercury Glass spray paint
– spray bottle with 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar solution
– hot glue and twine or ribbon
Follow the instructions that come with EasyCast – generally speaking, you just need to add equal parts of the epoxy and mix it for two minutes. Pour onto the molds and let it dry for a day. You will notice that as you mix the epoxy, bubbles will start to form but they go away once it’s dry into a super smooth, clear surface. Let it dry until it’s smooth to the touch, and these pretties should pop right out of the molds. Some letters did break in my second batch (the limby ones can be a bit tricky to remove), so start out slowly.
Note that the molds must be compatible for casting! These molds will easily release the shapes, and you can reuse them. I tried using them on chocolate molds, and they wouldn’t release from the forms. I had to cut the letters out of these molds, using a x-acto knife, pliers and scissors, so the molds were discarded afterwards.
Then lightly spray your vinegar solution on the back of the letters and apply thin coats of mercury glass spray paint. Add a layer of silver leaf if it strikes your fancy. Glue a dot of hot glue on the back with a ribbon loop and it’s ready to hang!
These are great for weddings too. Garlands, table numbers, signs, props…I will be making one for the nursery!
Does anyone know where I can have these glass letters like these made?
These are gorgeous, I work with resin to make jewelry but it never occurred to me to use it for banners, so pretty!!! Thank you so much for the detailed instructions and links… also just as an FYI you can get away with plastic chocolate molds, and reuse them. The trick is to pop the cured mold/resin in the freezer for a couple hours… some can be a bit tricky still so I typically also use a mold release spray but I haven’t had one get stuck yet since I learned this trick.
I know you were just using random letters from the word “Christmas” for your first image, but the first thing I saw was an anagram for “racist”.
Don’t know if anyone else noticed that lol…
Hi, I love your project. Just wondering, what purpose do you spray on vinegar. I never heard of that before.
Marianne, Denmark