Lighted Glass Block Ideas: The Best Ways to Decorate Glass Blocks!

Lighted glass block crafts are quick and easy to make. We will be going over one way of making an interchangeable glass block plus more glass block ideas to get inspired from!

You all know that I love figuring out any way I can save money and still have cute decor. Lately, I have been making quite a few interchangeable holiday decorations.

The easiest holidays to make reversible decor for are Fall and Christmas since they are back to back. I recently made reversible tree slice decorations and reversible outdoor wooden decor all out of scrap wood… so for FREE!

Another way to make interchangeable seasonal decorations is with burlap. I still love my rustic burlap Christmas sign that I change out for every season, so I thought why not make more burlap signs to put on glass blocks.

I love crafting with glass blocks because they are so versatile. You can easily add adhesive vinyl to frosted glass blocks, but I wanted to see how burlap would look. And I am in love!

I don’t even have to spend extra money buying more than one glass block. I can simply make a bunch of small burlap signs with iron-on vinyl and change them out whenever I want!

In this tutorial, we will first go over how to decorate a glass block with burlap signs and then I’ll give you a few more glass block craft ideas that use other methods to decorate!

Where to Find Glass Blocks For Crafts

Luckily decorative glass blocks for crafts are pretty easy to find. You’ll want ones that have a hole in the bottom so you can put lights in them. Not the ones they use for showers (unless you want to drill your own hole!)

I was super lucky last year to find them on clearance at Lowe’s after the Christmas season. It actually wasn’t even at the end, it was more mid-December but that’s the end to them!

They were 75% off so $2.50. They didn’t have any in stock at my Lowe’s so I went on Lowes.com and found them at a store 20 minutes away and ordered a pick up for 7 of them!

Craft stores also carry them year-round. Hobby Lobby, AC Moore, and Michaels have a few different sizes. Wait until they are on sale or use a coupon! Walmart.com also has them sometimes.

Materials Needed for Lighted Glass Block

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links from Amazon and/or Cricut.com. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my links (purple text). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

glass block
burlap – you don’t need much. I used some scrap pieces.
iron-on vinyl or HTV
Cricut cutting machine – always check prices between Cricut.com and Amazon (click links to compare!)
EasyPress 2 and mat
fairy lights
FREE Glory to the Newborn King SVG below

Cutting and Fraying Burlap

The first thing I did was cut the burlap. My glass block was 8×8 so I wanted the burlap signs to be about 7.5 inches square. The easiest way to cut burlap is to pull a strand all the way through the piece you are working with and cut parallel to the opening it forms. Then pull 2-3 more strands off to give it some fray.

Make sure to watch the video at the top where I show how I cut the burlap.

Then I measure 7.5 inches across and pulled a string that was 3-4 strands to the left (this leaves 1/4-1/2 inch of fray).

Cut parallel to the line that was formed about 1/4-1/2 inch (or where the 7.5 inch mark was). Repeat for every edge. Trim the frayed edges so they are even.

I have a video tutorial where I talk my way through it on my Christmas burlap sign post, so make sure to watch it if you are having problems with this part.

Cutting Iron-on Vinyl for Burlap Signs

You can design your own saying to apply to the burlap signs or use one in Cricut Access. For the fall glass block decor, I used a file in CDS found here. I sized it to 6 inches wide by 5.5 tall.

Make sure to click on the “mirror” setting on both mats (on left-hand side of Prepare screen) and select iron-on setting.

Place the iron-on vinyl shiny side down on a light grip mat. I used black for my Christmas glass blocks and brown and orange for the Fall lighted glass block.

If you need additional help cutting and weeding HTV, make sure to check out the post for detailed instructions (purple link).

Weed off the extra vinyl.

FREE Glory to the Newborn King SVG

As a reminder, all of my FREE SVG files are for personal use only and not for commercial use. Please click here to purchase a commercial license if you want to use the files for commercial purposes such as to sell items for your small business.

Sometimes the file will look blurry when you first open it, but once you download it, the SVG will open up clearly.

If it doesn’t automatically download, you might need to right-click on it and Save As. If you need additional help, make sure to check out my post on how to download and upload files to CDS.

Or check out my Cricut Design Space 101 series for even more tutorials.

Click here for the Glory to the Newborn King cut files. It should automatically download a zipped file. Extract and use whichever format you need. SVG for Cricut Design Space.

Applying Iron-On Vinyl to Burlap

I used my EasyPress 2 but you could use a heat press or iron. When I inputted the materials at the heat guide it said to preheat to 305F.

Once it was preheated, I pressed the plain burlap to make it flat and to also get any moisture out.

Center the iron-on vinyl. For the fall burlap sign, I was using two different colors, so I pressed the letters for 15 seconds first. If you are using Cricut iron-on vinyl, let the vinyl cool for 30 seconds to a minute before you peel off the backing.