Dollar Store Craft: custom geometric vases

A few months ago, I found some great glass vases at the Dollar Store. I filled them with free seasonal decor. When we moved, I had to find a new place for my vases, and the best place was in the living room. But I needed five more vases.

Rather than filling them all again, I decided I wanted to paint them to match our new living room decor. I picked up some acrylic paint and masking tape ($2 and $1, respectively) and sat down to make some awesome designs with the tape. 

I turned this into a kids' craft, too, because I laid out the newspaper and let my kids loose with the foam brushes!

Some tips on getting this right:

• Use (at least) two coats of paint, and allow the paint to dry fully between coats.
• Apply the second coat carefully and quickly, and lay it on thick. Try not to paint an area more than once. If you don't, the paint will ripple and pull off!
• You can use the acrylic enamel made for glass--it'll be dishwasher safe and it might work better, but I don't know how well it works with masking tape.
• Be careful when pulling off the tape! The acrylic doesn't want to adhere, especially at the point of diamonds or triangles. If I did it over again, I wouldn't do those shapes. A razor blade can be helpful in holding down the paint while you pull off the tape. (Or you can do what I did and use your fingernails. Wayward!).

I still have three plain vases. What should I do? I was going to leave them blank, but my husband thinks they look . . . well, blank. My two ideas would be to borrow a page from Jaime's book and do a glitter vase, or to fill them with something cool. Glass beads? Autumn leaves? Colored water? (Ha--asking for trouble with four kids 8 & under!)

What do you think??