A couple of weeks ago I saw someone online sporting a very excellent pair of glitter glasses, and I became absolutely fixated on having a pair of my own. Despite many people begging to know where her glasses were from, she remained steadfastly mute (I’ve never really understood people who do this) so I had to do a bit of detective work myself, and it turned out they were these.
I would have bought them in a heartbeat, except literally two days previously I had spent a fairly breathtaking amount on a new pair of glasses (my lovely optometrist, bless his heart, is calling them “double lenses” to spare my feelings, but the truth is I now need to wear bifocals). I was still severely tempted to order them – $331 isn’t that bad after all, and don’t we all need multiple pairs of glasses? – but while I waiting for my optometrist to confirm my new prescription I stumbled across a tub of Modge Podge Glitter Top Coat on a trip to Spotlight and thought maybe the more sensible thing to do would be to have a stab at DIY’ing my own glitter glasses out of an old pair of spectacles that I already owned.
DIY your own glitter glasses frames
For this project you will need:
- 1 pair of plastic-framed glasses (I’m using sunglasses for the tutorial, but the photo above shows the finished version of my regular prescription glasses)
- 1 tub of Modge Podge Glitter Top Coat (actually, the tiniest quantity of 1 tub)
- 1 small paintbrush
- some masking tape
- Sticky label big enough to cover both lenses
To start with you’re going to need to cover the parts of the glasses that you don’t want to glitter. The easiest way I found to do this was to cut a piece of sticky label big enough to cover the lens, and shape it into the edges of the frame with your fingernails. Once it’s properly stuck down run a sharp knife around the edge of the lens so that you can pull away the excess label, leaving only the lenses covered.
Next you want to also cover the parts of the frame that are going to be brushing up against your face – the nosepiece, and the bottom edges of the frame where it rests on your cheeks (I did the top of the frame too). The easiest way to do this is with a bit of masking tape or medical tape.
OK. Now you just have to take your little paintbrush and start smoothing the glitter topcoat over the exposed parts of the frame:
It goes on white, but dries to clear.
Unless you want a very discreet twinkle you’ll have to do several coats (especially if you’re starting with dark framed glasses in the first place). Make sure you give each coat ample time to dry before applying the next: at least an hour, ideally two. I did three coats of glitter on my glasses to get the desired result.
Once the final coat is on leave overnight, then the next day remove the masking tape and sticky label and get ready to tell a bunch of strangers where you got your awesome specs.
The finish can be the tiniest bit rough to touch, but the glitter shouldn’t flake off as it’s a top-coat already. If you’re desperate for a smoother finish you can do a final coat with a Modge Podge Gloss finish – even some clear nail polish should do the trick, but I’m not sure of its longevity.
Theoretically the Modge Podge should take 28 days to cure properly, by which I assume it becomes bullet proof (or at least dishwasher-safe) because the glitter layer on my glasses was certainly dry and hard enough to wear on day two.
