Free-Form DIY Gold Vase

I've had a tall, glass cylinder vase forever that I use for lots of things, including an Easter "tree" and Valentine's "tree."  Often I use jelly beans or heart candies as filler to hold up the branches, but I've been leaning toward something a little more sophisticated.  Since I'm way into gold these days, I decided to dress up my vase with some leftover gold spray paint.  I also wanted to create a more organic, free form look rather than a more severe stripe.  Here's how I did it. 

You'll need:

Clear glass vase (clean and dry)
Gold spray paint
Painter's tape
Self-healing mat
X-Acto knife or other paper/crafting blade
Plastic bag
Clear poly or varnish (spray or can)

Measure the circumference of your vase and cut your tape accordingly, leaving a tad extra for overlap.  If you have extra wide painter's tape, you may only need one piece, but as mine was narrow, I used three pieces. 

Since my vase was large, the tape was longer than my mat.  I drew my shape the length of my tape and then carefully pulled up the tape and repositioned it on the mat to continue cutting it. Since this is free form, it doesn't matter if you don't cut along the line perfectly.  Just make sure your cut line is curved softly. 

Also, make sure the two ends of your tape will connect in the same spot once you wrap it around your vase.  Again, it doesn't have to be perfect--you can adjust it and trim it once you stick the tape to your vase.

If you need to, you can gently (so you don't scratch your glass) trim the tape with the blade after you've wrapped it around the vase.

If you're an impatient spray painter (like me) try to be very careful with this project.  Several light coats are better than thick coats.  The smooth surface will show any imperfections and any drips will run right down the glass since there's no texture to catch them.

Once the paint is fully dry, spray it with a high gloss poly, or if you have a can of poly or varnish (as I did) use a foam brush to apply it.  Don't worry if you see brush strokes, they will level out as they dry.

Spray poly will dry quickly, but my brushed on varnish took 24 hours.  You can pull off the tape before the paint is fully dry.

Oh, and you may want to bring your vase inside so a bug doesn't get stuck in the paint : (

I collected some branches from outside and hung my clay ornaments from them.  To hold the branches up, I used Epsom salt.

I've never spray painted glass before, but I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out.  What do you think?