Stained Glass Cook Book or Ipad Stand

It's shaping up to be mosaic week at Bliss Ranch.

I finished up a couple projects that graced my dining room table for a couple weeks.

If you spend any time on Pinterest or reading blogs like Homeroad, you know exactly what a trivet ipad holder is.

I wanted one of these..... just like Susan makes.

But I didn't make one like that.

Why?

Because darn-it, I didn't have the right size trivet.

Just like Goldilocks, I had one that was too big, one that was too small, but no trivet that was just right lived at this mama bears house.

So I did the next best thing, I used what I had on hand to make my own kitchen ipad holder.  And the cost was zero.

I asked the man with the saw to cut me a piece of scrap wood to the size I specified.

What came back seemed larger than I requested, but he insisted that it was the size I asked for.

I'm bad with math, so I admit that is possible.

But he's bad with hearing, so him being wrong is also a possibility, and he tells people I'm always right, so who you gonna believe?

I went to the garage to look through the bins of scrap stained glass.

I have a couple big bins full of shards that my oldest daughter brought home for me, which are sure to give a gal a cut or two if she fishes around for just the right color combos.

Blue was on top, so even though there is nothing blue in my kitchen I decided I could work with that color and save my fingers some agony.

The blues I ended up using are sort of a stormy seas combo, and I made a tray with lighter blues for my cedar porch, which I will show you later this week.

The finished product reminds me of a coastal storm blowing in, which is just what I'm like when I'm cooking in the kitchen.

First thing was to paint the wood Ivory with Maison Blanche paint that you can purchase from Shannon at Fox Hollow Cottage.

I paint light colors for the base when I am using stained glass so the glass ends up as bright as possible.

Before I glued and grouted I also painted the outside frame with Maison Blanche wrought iron - which by the time I was done using their Lime Wax on it, gave me a rainy cloud color.

This is probably a good time to tell you I don't claim to be any sort of expert on making mosaics, so proceed with caution following my directions.

I have a style that is nothing like a professional mosaic or stained glass artist.

However, it works for me and I'm happy, and Brawn would tell you me being happy is very important to the happiness of everyone else around me.

The stained glass pieces I have are left over from stained glass artists who know what they are doing, so they are random shapes and sizes.

I take those, clip and cut them, and they end up still being random shapes and sizes, but random sizes that now fit my project.

I always use a clear silicon adhesive like GE Silicone II, because it dries clear and the colors of the translucent glass stay accurate.  I have no idea if that's a good idea or a bad one so all you professional stained glass artists who have an opinion on my adhesive choice, just keep quiet.

This isn't a craft you should do at the kitchen table, because as you clip the glass into smaller pieces, little shards the size of invisible DNA will inevitably fall to the floor for your feet or the feet of those you love, to find at a later date.  Just saying.

This type random glass project is like fitting pieces of a puzzle together that are sized as you go, but better than a puzzle because when you get to the last piece if it doesn't fit, you can crack that sucker in half and force it into place.

Let the glue dry for a day or so (or week if you're me) and then suck up to the guy you know in your heart messed up the size on this project.

Ask him to grout it for you because you have delicate lady hands and don't wanna mess them with that rough sandy grout.

Wipe the grout haze off a couple times with a damp sponge, then let it cure for a couple days.

The details are what I like about this project.

I have a pile of old flatware.

Two butter knives and a cake server later, I not only have a ledge to hold the ipad in place, but a stand in the back to hold the whole thing up.

This also doubles as a cook book holder.

The space between the knife handles allows me to get at the on/off button on the ipad.

A couple of screws hold the silverware in place.

I bent the handle on the cake server till the holder was at the angle I wanted for the stand.

The final step on this was to wax the wood with Maison Blanche Lime Wax.

I love that wax!  It gave my project a seaside vibe, sort of a grayed driftwood cast over the black paint, you know - all stormy, like me when I blow through the kitchen.

Subscribe, Bliss Ranch arrives magically!