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Easy DIY Painted Glass Dish Flowers for the Garden

See how easy it is to paint glass dish flowers for your garden

I’ve always loved flowers, but I don’t always love watering the gardens on hot and humid summer days. The easiest way to add some fun and colorful flowers to the garden is to create garden art flowers yourself, like the DIY painted glass dish flowers that I’m sharing with you today.

Repurposing things into garden art flowers is one of my favorite things to do, and with this project the possibilities are pretty endless.

glass dish painted with pink purple and yellow paint markers close up

Above is a sneak peek of one of the 3 different flowers that I created for this project. It’s really amazing what you can do with a few inexpensive clear glass dishes. These flowers are super easy to create and a lot of fun too.

Welcome to this month’s Do It Over Designers blog hop. The theme this month is a fun one… anything glass. I have to say that I was really looking forward to this challenge, and I can’t wait to see what everyone created for this one. I’m sharing my project with you first, and you can find links to all the talented creators at the end of this post. Be sure to visit and check out all the fabulousness. I’m sure you’ll be inspired!

How to create DIY Painted glass dish flowers

thrift sotre glass dishes for garden art flowers project

Every once in a while a thrift store in my area has a 25 cent clear out sale of all their clear glass dishware. So to start out this project is costing me just 75 cents. I found three different small clear glass dishes with different patterns in them that I thought would be perfect for this project. The best dishes to use are those that have sculpted details and indentations in the glass.

You can see a bit of yellow in the one dish already. I just got started when I remembered that I hadn’t taken a before pic.

These dishes are the only things that I purchased specifically for this project. Everything else I’m using I already had on hand.


Supplies needed for DIY Painted Glass Dish Flowers

  • various clear glass dishes
  • Sharpie oil paint pens
  • white spray paint and primer combo
  • Spray polyurethane
  • Marina GOOP adhesive
  • stainless steel teaspoons
  • hammer
  • 1/2″ PVC pipe, or whatever pipe you like

paint markers used for painting glass dishes

For all three flowers I’m using just three colors, pink, yellow, and purple. By using the same three colors the flowers will relate to each other while still being completely different.

These paint pens are so much fun to color with. I recently shared this outdoor garden plaque makeover with the same pens. And I also used them for this vintage resin floral indoor plaque makeover.

Painting glass dishes with paint pens

painting glass dish with yellow paint marker

I grabbed one of the dishes and started coloring the sculpted areas on the bottom of the dish with the yellow. I decided not to preplan anything. Sometimes the projects that are the most fun are the ones where you just wing it.

adding pink to glass dish with paint marker

Then I added some pink around the medallion in the middle.

adding purple details to glass dish with paint marker

After adding the purple this first dish was ready to move onto the next step. But first I had to color the other two dishes.

painting glass dishes with paint markers

Here’s the next one with the same three colors.

painting thrift store glass dishes with paint markers

And the last dish, which didn’t have a middle medallion sculpted into it so I just winged it myself.

Now, you could totally stop here and use these as suncatchers if you wanted to but I was going for a different look and I really wanted to see if my idea would work.

Spray painting DIY painted glass dishes

spray paint and teaspoons used to create glass dish flowers

To make my glass dish flowers ready for the garden I needed a few more things. I used what I already had on hand, which was a flat white spray paint and primer combo, and a matte spray poly.

Because I make and sell upcycled wind chines I have a large stash of cutlery. For this project I chose 3 stainless steel teaspoons to use as hangers on the back of the dishes.

spray painting the backs of glass dishes white

I let my dishes cure for 24 hours and then I spray painted the backs with 3 light coats of the white. I honestly wasn’t sure how this would turn out because I used oil paint pens and the spray paint isn’t oil based. It was probably the primer in the spray paint that made it ok. A few hours after the third coat of the spray paint was dry, I applied 2 coats of the matte spray poly.

I have to admit that it took all my will power to not turn the dishes over as soon as I put on the first coat of white spray paint. Since I’ve never done this process before I really, really wanted to see what it looked like. But somehow I managed to resist the temptation. Believe me when I say it wasn’t easy, but I did it. lol.

Flattening and bending teaspoons

flattening teaspoons for glass dish flowers

Next I needed to flatten the stainless steel teaspoons. This is easily done with a piece of cardboard and an ordinary hammer. Make sure you do this outside on a flat piece of stone. I have a broken piece of thick marble that I keep outside just for this purpose.

Before doing this make sure that the teaspoons have handles that will fit into whatever pipe you’re going to use as stems.

bending spoons for glass dish flowers

Once the teaspoons are flattened they need to be bent back. I always bend them so I can see the lovely patterns on the handles, but it doesn’t really matter.

Gluing the teaspoons onto the dish flowers

Marine Goop Adhesive used for glass dish flowers

To glue my teaspoons on to the backs of the dish flowers I used Marine GOOP adhesive. I like this glue because it’s meant for boat repair and is water and UV resistant. I’ve also used E6000 glue in some of my garden projects in the past and if that’s what you have it will work as well.

gluing bent teaspoons onto backs of painted glass dishes

I let the teaspoons sit in place and cure for about 24 hours before placing them outside.

TIP: Before gluing on the spoons it’s important that the spray paint is not only dry but also totally cured. This can take a couple of days. Follow the instructions on the can. This is so that the glue won’t be able to penetrate through the paint.

Displaying the DIY painted dish flowers in the garden

glass dish painted with yellow pink and purple paint markers

And here’s the first one in my garden. The white spray paint really makes the colors pop, and it also protects the colored areas.

The teaspoon just sits in the 1/2″ PVC pipe, which is spray painted green. I’ve made a lot of upcycled garden flowers over the years so I have quite a few pipe pieces already painted. I’ve also used copper pipe, and pieces from a broken deck swing.

TIP: Push your pipe into the ground at least 8″ deep. 12″ is even better if you have a windy property like I do. Make sure to add that extra length if you have to cut your pipe.

glass dish painted with pink purple and yellow paint markers

And the second one with a completely different look. What I love most about these glass dish flowers is that you don’t have to be too precious with the painting. You can just have fun and go for it.

glass dish painted with purple yellow and pink paint markers

And the third, completely different again. There’s a real hand crafted look to the finished painted dish flowers when the painting is not too perfect.

thrift sotre glass dishes for garden art flowers project

Here’s the before of the clear glass dishes again.

glass dish painted with yellow pink and purple paint markers

And the after in my garden. I love how the three dish flowers complement each other, but are completely different at the same time. And the colors change a little throughout the day in different light.

I really want to try different color combos, with maybe a dark spray painted background next time.

The creative possibilities for these DIY painted glass dish flowers are as limitless as our imaginations. And I’ll be honest with you, coloring is just so much fun!

I hope this project has inspired you, and now for more inspiration be sure to check out the other Do It Over Designers listed below.

Little Vintage Cottage
Modern on Monticello
Pandora’s Box
Purple Hues and Me
Southern Sunflowers
Unique Creations by Anita
The Apple Street Cottage
Exquisitely Unremarkable
Color Me Thrifty… that’s me!

It would be greatly appreciated if you would pin this project to your favorite Pinterest board, and also share it with your friends.

Thanks so much for reading and until next time,

keep on keepin’ on!

XOX

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20 Comments

  1. Oh, how fun!! I could color with those paint pens all day, but I never thought about using them on glass. I love the spoon trick, too. I actually have a few of those plates in my stash. I just might spend my day painting by the pool! What a neat idea. Thanks!!

    1. Thanks very much Kim! Paint pens are such fun to play with and I just can’t stop. lol. You can paint so many things with them.

  2. I love your flowers, Tuula! The bright colors look so pretty in the garden. Thanks for the tutorial, this project has been on my list to try for a long time!

    1. Thanks Ann! I’ve always loved making garden flowers and now with these paint pens I think I’ll be making many more.

  3. Patti @ Pandoras Box says:

    Cute project and a fun way to add color to your garden!

    1. Thanks Patti! In my world you can never have too many upcycled flowers in your garden. lol.

  4. Your painted glass flowers are very creative and pretty, Tuula! I love the vibrant colors you chose especially the purple! The colors certainly enhance the pattern of the dishes and actually gives off a stained glass effect which is quite lovely! What a wonderful technique to share! Thanks!

    1. Thanks Gail! These flowers were so much fun to create and I knew you would enjoy the purple.

  5. Of course I love this makeover Tuula, I love all your DIY garden flowers and always look forward to what you’ll use to make them next!

    Tania

  6. Your dish flowers are gorgeous! I love the colors you chose and your step-by-step tutorial is wonderful for us amateurs! Thank you so much for sharing this great idea. Have a wonderful weekend.
    Barbara

    1. Thanks very much Barbara! I’m so glad you enjoyed my flower project. It was a lot of fun.

  7. MaryEllen says:

    These are so pretty! As I read your instructions, I started to envision these glass plates painted with white and silver, and maybe some of them left without the white matte background so they would look like giant snowflakes “planted” in the bare garden in the winter. See…your creativity inspires creativity in me. Thank you so much!

    1. Thanks MaryEllen! I love the snowflake idea. I’m so glad my you find my projects inspiring.

  8. What a fun way to repurpose crockery and create garden decor at the same time. They look great. I have been tempted to buy the paint pens you have now convinced me they are great.

    1. Thanks Anita! I love working with the paint pens. They’re so versatile and can be used on so many things.

  9. Well my friend, you’ve done it again! Another wonderful project! I love this……love the simplicity of making it and the pretty way it turns out! You know, I have a Pintrest ‘folder’ titled “Tuula’s Stuff”! As soon as I get my apartment, I’m going to fill the patio with your flowers! I’m going to enjoy them, AND the comments of people walking by! Thanks again!!!

    1. Thanks Dona! These are super easy to make. The coloring does take some time, but it’s so much fun. I know how much you love flowers, so I think you would enjoy creating some of these.

  10. Your flowers turned out so cute and whimsical! The cut designs in the glass plates are absolutely perfect for your project. I wouldn’t have even thought about spray painting the back side to make the colors pop. Great project!