Glass Christmas Blocks

Well I have been wanting to do this little craft ever since I first saw it on one of my yahoo groups.

I think these little beauties would be a talking piece on anyones Christmas table.  I am even thinking about making them as night lights for a childs room, personalise them with their name and a design.

Lights Off - Beautiful

Lights On - Gorgeous

Ingredients

• Glass bricks - I used the wave pattern here but anything you like will do. I also have the diamond ones to try next.  As the pattern is on the inside it doesnt really matter.
• Glass and tile drill bit - 8mm
• LOADS of patience or a drill press
• Battery operated LED's - you could use 240v ones but I wanted mine to be portable without the hassle of cords.  LED's are a lot cooler than ordinary bulds as well
• Vinyl - I have used gold and silver
• Cricut - if you have one
• Transfer tape
• Wire edged ribbon
• and of course - batteries

The longest and hardest part would be drilling the holes.  TAKE YOUR TIME and let the drill do the work.  I did find it beneficial to cool my bit down in a cup of water several times towards the end of the hole.

I also found it kept it cooler if I cleared away the glass dust.

Note to self: DO Not run cold water over the brick imediately after drilling is complete - wait at least 10 minutes for the glass to cool.

It takes about 10minutes to drill one hole and 2 seconds to wreck a brick...you do the math LOL

Once the brick has cooled down I rinsed them out as dust does settle inside.  Remove the water straight away as the powder is next to impossible to remove once it had dried.  I also found that adding a little metho to the water helped with the drying process.

Design your cricut piece.  Here is a link to the ones I used.  Both in .scut and SVG (Still to come)

 

Merry Christmas.svg            Merry Christmas.scut

Peace.svg                          Peace.scut

Cut your vinyl, being careful to have your settings right so you don't go through the backing paper.

Weed out the parts you do not want on your design.

Apply the transfer tape and carfully transfer you design to the tape.

After checking that your glass surface is perfectly clean and dry apply the vinyl being careful to smooth down the best you can as you are going.

If you do happen to get a few small bubbles don't panic you can pop them with a pin and push down to stick.

Feed the lights into the brick.  I made my hole on the bottom (when the brick is upright) and to the right.  That way the cord runs out the side and I keep the batteries behind.

Wrap the ribbon around the brick and knot.  I made my bow seperately and glued on using a strong fabric glue.

Good luck with yours

Jilly xx :)