DIY Initial Mosaic at Sunshine Glaze in Southlake

When a local blogger friend, Kim, mentioned that she was going to be helping host a complimentary blogger’s night out at Sunshine Glaze in Southlake, Texas, I knew I had to go!   Luckily, my schedule was free and my mom’s night out was ON.

Our project was to make initial mosaics, and I chose the letter J for my first name.  We got to pick our own colors of glass pieces and flattened marbles.  The cool thing was that we were shown how to actually cut any pieces that were too big.  I had no idea you could do that and ended up cutting several pieces to fit better.

I chose a mix of blues, greens, browns, and creams.  There were tons of other options, but these earthy tones are my absolute favorites.

Once I picked out my colors, I practiced laying them out over the entire initial.  I wanted to make sure everything fit before starting to glue, because I didn’t want to end up with fewer than I needed and then have to start trying to find more than matched.  I wanted to make sure I had everything I needed from the get go!

After I had everything where I wanted it, I glued everything down with tacky glue.  From there, it was a waiting game.  I had to wait at least 24 hours to grout the mosaic piece.

Once I had waited a good couple of days (Whoops!), I decided it was time to be brave and grout the initial.  Sunshine Glaze sent us home with a bag of powdered grout and an instruction sheet on what to do.  I added water to the powder, mixed it, and let it sit out for about 10 minutes until it had a peanut buttery consistency.  Once it did, I started spreading it out over the whole thing!

The instructions said to act like you were icing a cake, so I began the process by spreading the grout with a plastic knife.  However, I knew I had to squish the grout between the tiles and marbles, so then I started to just get my hands dirty and really get into it!

They had offered two different colors of grout.  This one was the beige and there was also one that was more cream or white colored.  I chose this one to go along with the earthy colors I had picked already.  When it was wet, I wasn’t sure how it would look when dry!

I *love* how it turned out!  I let it dry for a day or two before taking it off of the paper towel I’d left it on.  I love how sparkly everything is, and the beige grout looks good with the colors I chose.

I’ve already had a few friends suggest putting together a girl’s night out for various playgroups that I am a part of.  It sounds like a great idea to me!

Sunshine Glaze is located at 405 N. Carroll Avenue in Southlake, Texas.  Some of the art forms offered are mosaics, painted pottery, glass fusing, and mixed media wood art.

They have all sorts of classes for kids, including storytime, American Girl sessions, kids camp, homeschool classes, and more.  For adults, they have ladies night out, clay classes, and other art classes available.  There are also various weekly and monthly specials, so be sure to check out the Specials page.

Connect with Sunshine Glaze Creative Studio Southlake on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Thanks to Sunshine Glaze for hosting us!  I had a great time reconnecting with friends and creating a unique, fun art piece for my home.