Trouble spray painting glass plates

[coconutyoohoo]

I saw an idea for a craft in a book that involved spray painting glass plates. I thought the project looked simple, but with great results and so decided to give it a try. I washed and dried the plates then used some Krylon EasyTack repositionable adhesive to stick a piece of lacy fabric onto the back of the plate. Then I used some Rust-Oleum spray paint to spray over the lace. When I removed the fabric, the paint had bled so that the outline of the pattern wasn't clearly defined, but kind of meh mushy everywhere. It wasn't very nice.

So I tried again with another plate, thinking that I needed more adhesive spray because the fabric was thick and hadn't stayed down while I spray painted. But the same thing happened. But I noticed this time that the paint was kind of gloppy when I peeled off the fabric, so I thought I didn't let it dry long enough (I get impatient when it comes to seeing the final vision! ).

So I tried with a third plate last night. This time I said, screw the lace, it wasn't working for me. So I cut up strips of newspaper and made a crosshatch pattern on the back of the plate, spraying the paper on with the adhesive. I then made sure the paper was securely attached before painting. I did my best impression of patience and let it dry overnight. This morning I went to see the results, and was disappointed that the paint had bled--again--, but this time the newspaper was stuck to the plate as well. What newspaper I did manage to pull off ended up pulling paint off with it. So this whole thing is becoming a disaster!


I've seen some really cool results from other people and I'm wondering if any of you have tried this and have suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong? I've thought that maybe I'm spraying the paint on too thick and that I should do more light coats as opposed to one thick one. But the other thing I don't know what to do about is the adhesive. I've found that the adhesive actually causes a texture on the back of the plate, and I really want a smooth paint. Although at this point, having a few raised specks is the least of my problems!

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[x46]

I've only seen people do this with water based acrylic paints, either using a sponge brush or a sponge to apply the paint.  Maybe it's the Krylon spray reacting with something in the adhesive? 

[lovesclutter]

If you could use some type of wax relief, where the pattern was done in the wax, this would be time consuming, but they do this to eggs all the time. Spray and remove the wax.

I was thinking immediately that you would have needed to seal the lace someway so it would not absorb the paint. Some people cut designs in contact paper too.

wonder if you could folk contact paper, cut out designs like we used to make snowflakes, then unfold, peel, stick and spray. I'm sure there are dozens of ways to do this, but painting with acrylic glass paints is the best way to get your results.

[tomico]

Maybe you could just spray the lace with the adhesive and not the entire plate. I have a book that mentions doing that and says to just let it dry 5 min. so the adhesive doesn't dry completely. You can remove the lace then add another color afterwards over the unmasked plate so that it shows through the pattern. Are you using paper doilies or fabric lace? I don't know if that would make a difference or not.