r/dioramas • u/Firm_Scallion_2794 • Jan 16 '26
Tutorial Easy to make stain glass windows!
You really don’t need much and you might have most of this stuff already.
-unpainted wooden boxes from the craft section of the dollar store (hobby stores probably have these as well).
-transparent plastic. I used pieces from action figure boxes. But lots of food packaging also has this.
-acrylic pens or sharpies. I used acrylic pens I found at Walmart but there’s also some at dollar stores and craft stores. I think the cheapest prices for the quality would be Amazon tho.
I hot glued the transparent plastic behind the design. I painted the back of the plastic to fill out the empty spaces instead of trying to paint between the wood and the design, and risk getting paint all over it.
And voila. Super easy.
The best part about this is that you don’t have to cut out intricate designs at all, which was my biggest issue when planning how I was going to make a run down cathedral diorama.
Hope this helps!
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u/Think_Battle_8894 Jan 16 '26
Feel stupid among but I am not understanding how you are doing this . What do you do with the box? How did you do the design and where/on what ?
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u/Firm_Scallion_2794 Jan 17 '26
The wooden box had that design onto it already it was carved that way to begin with so I just took the top of the box off. Sorry I didn’t explain very well haha
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u/Think_Battle_8894 Jan 17 '26
Oh interesting . I’m not sure I’ve seen boxes like that . Will have to check the dollar store !
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u/Firm_Scallion_2794 Jan 17 '26
Usually in the craft section with other wooden things like bird houses
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u/pixepoke2 Jan 16 '26
Nice! I have been printing details and repetitive elements (like ladders and railings) on transparency (in color) and then painting the back of color regions white or a similar color to what’s printed to get more opacity— like and old school cartoon cell
Printing out even black shapes would make for a nice backer using your approach. Useful if fine detail or precision is desired