A few days ago I shared a fun colorful acrylic cake stand. And I realized that I never shared a few easy ways how to make your own custom colored acrylic to cut in the Glowforge. I always get asked where I get my colors of acrylic and well, one of my tricks is that I spray paint clear acrylic in any color I want!

I used Montana gold acrylic spray paint to paint one side of the clear acrylic while leaving the other side with its protective covering. That way the unpainted side remains clean. No obviously this is not a technique you can use with items that come in contact with food, but for things like wall art, photo frames, jewelry, and office supplies, this technique is perfect for getting custom colored acrylic or even a gradient acrylic look like these paper clips.

Or this ruler…

For both of these pieces I made the initial cut on my Glowforge and then peeled away the protective layer of paper backing on one side and spray painted that exposed side in the gradient colors I wanted. Once dry, I removed the paper backing on the other side to see the result.

How to Make your own Custom Colored Acrylic

You can also choose to spray paint your whole acrylic sheet before cutting. Like this one that I gave a gradient burst effect to. It almost looks like tie dye, doesn’t it?

Once the paint is dry, you can go ahead and cut in your Glowforge as normal with the painted side facing up. You can even try transparent spray paint like the earrings above used for a fun translucent effect.

Solid colors are also an option. For these cacti paper clips, I wanted an assortment of greens and blues that I just couldn’t find in standard off the shelf acrylic, so I painted the back of clear acrylic using my Montana Gold spray paint in Poison, Malachite light, and Malachite for the perfect color trio.

Another fun option for getting custom acrylic is to actually put paint brush to acrylic and paint your own design on the acrylic. Just be sure to seal the acrylic paint if using this technique. Spray gloss varnish or a simple coat of clear mod podge work well.

You can see this technique in the bottom left flower with the abstract brush stroke design.

As you can see there are so many ways to make your own custom colored acrylic for any project you can dream up! And if you don’t have a glowforge, you can still use this technique to color clear acrylic items like mini easel signs, jewelry pieces, and more that you can find on etsy or online.