Glass Etching
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Doing glass etching on various projects is a great way to personalize gifts. It’s fairly easy to do, but you do need to be very careful with the etching cream.
I had this glass totem that I made over a year ago. I googled to find a garden phrase and found “Friends are the flowers in the garden of life”.
Decide on a stencil
The image was designed in my Silhouette Studio Designer Edition. I was cutting this out on my Portrait, so I did it in two different cuts. After I cut it like this, I rotated it to cut the other half. Note: the “g” in garden, I didn’t make my outer most circle quite big enough.
Can you see the words? It’s tough to see white on white.
Apply Stencil
I actually ended up cutting out one word at a time and applied it without transfer paper. Because I do stenciling all the time, it was easy for me. This vinyl is VERY sticky and a little difficult to re-position. After applying each word, I transferred the oodles and boodles. (insides of the letters)
Spread etching cream with plastic knife
There were a couple of places I had to “patch” with a small sliver of the vinyl—where the letter was too close to the edge, and where the two words didn’t come together perfectly. I didn’t want the etching cream to bleed though the edges of the stencil.
After donning rubber gloves I used a plastic knife to apply the etching cream to the stencil.
Use a cotton swab to clean up smudges
There were a couple of places I got too close to the edge, and used a Q-tip to clean it up.
Rinse Etching Cream with garden hose
I scraped the excess etching cream back into the bottle, it’s reusable. It’s best to do this outside (away from pets and plants).
Carefully, I rinsed the etching cream off with the hose. I have used etching cream before and learned the hard way that you shouldn’t rinse it in your sink. When you have a porcelain sink the etching cream can leave visible damage.
Admire your glass etching project!
I love how this glass etching turned out! There are so many applications for glass etching. Think candy dishes, dog/cat treat bowls, oh and I did glass etching on a baking dish for jamie years ago.
gail
What a awesome idea, I love it!
I would love to make notecards and labels and etch a mirror for my hallway
Ok Glass etching is next on my list! That little garden statue is awesome Gail! I think I would use it to personalize
Christmas gifts 🙂
I would love to etch some cookie jars! Great wedding gifts…yes?
I’m thinking I’d like to etch something on the glass door of my studio (after some practice on something else!)
My son and his wife are deaf. I’d love to etch the hand-sign I Love You on a set or clear dessert plates and glasses. Thanks for a wonderful giveaway.
I always wanted to try etching. I have some really funky blue wine bottles I would like to etch one day. I also have many other ideas for window panes and glass doors.
I really want to etch my own casserole dishes that my sweet hubby bought for me on our last anniversary. Yes, it was what I wanted! I also want them to return to me, so putting our last name on them is imperative!!! Of course my mind has a lot of other vinyl projects rolling around in it…I have some spare cupboard doors crying out for vinyl…
Would love to etch gift for christmas
I have wanted to do glass etching for awhile, but have been scared I will mess it up. This looks so easy. I would like to make personalized Christmas ornaments for my children and this would be a great opportunity. With the Silhouette I could make each one special with out having purchase off the shelf generic stencils. Thanks for the opportunity!
I would mainly use it for baby shower gifts, but I would love to etch a glass lamp shade.
My son is getting married in April, I wanted to etch an entire set of kitchen ware for their wedding.