Glass Etching

I went over to Becky's on Sunday to do a fun project we've both been wanting to do: etch glass.

First we made our pattern and printed it out. I'm doing initials for Christmas gifts.

Next we traced our pattern onto clear contact paper (you have to do this for each piece you're doing - i.e. you can't reuse one piece of contact paper). You have to do it on the clear side, not the paper backing or your pattern will be backwards!

Place the contact paper on the glass and smooth out any bubbles around your pattern. You don't want etching cream to leak outside of your pattern.

Apply the etching cream. We used this and let it sit twice as long as the directions said - 10 minutes total - because we just didn't like the effect after only 5 minutes. The little 3 oz bottle doesn't seem like much, but we didn't even put a dent in it with our project (I did 4 pilsner glasses and Becky did 4 shot glasses).

Rinse the etching cream off under water and be sure to use gloves! Dry your glasses and admire your work (though it hardly seems like work - it's soooo easy)!

I have at least a set of wine glasses and a set of shot glasses to do still.

OH - the best part! You can get a set of 4 wine glasses or these pilsner glasses at Walmart for less than $5, the shot glasses are less than $3! The etching cream may seem a bit expensive (I think Becky said it was around $10), but if you split the cost with a friend, or even just consider how much you can do with one bottle, it's not really bad at all. I'm thinking of giving the glasses with the recipient's favorite wine, beer, etc.