Etching Glass

So, apparently I’m on an etching kick because I etched some mason jars this week.

I saw some cute jars at the store the other day, but couldn’t bring myself to buy them. 

So I decided to just etch my own–and that way I can personalize them.

This was my first time etching glassware, so I did some basic designing at first–labeling jars and whatnot.

The more I got in to it, the more I figured out different ways to get different designs.

I had SO much fun with this project and now I have some awesome jars and glasses to use!

After you get started on this project, you’ll find what materials works best for you. 

The basic things you’re going to want to have to start out with:

Contact paper or painters tape. (I used both and found that they both work pretty much the same…although I like the painters tape better), scissors, etching cream (I bought a little jar of it at Michaels-it came with a little tiny brush to spread it on) an x-acto knife, a jar or glass container of some kind, imagination and some letter stickers. 

First, I washed the jar, and made sure it was clean and didn’t have any fingerprints on it. 

Then I put the letter stickers on, and taped off the areas where I wanted to etching cream to go.

I squeezed a few globs of the cream on and spread it all around with the little brush.

You want to make sure you spread it around evenly, and make sure the layer is thick enough to cover the whole area.

I let the etching cream sit for about 20 minutes before I took the tape off the jar and washed the cream away.

I thought the stickers and the painters tape worked really well. I had clean, crisp lines when I washed all the cream off the jar.

 Then I started having fun with the contact paper–cutting out different shapes and designs. With the contact paper I found that you really need to press down when you stick them on the jars so they give you clean lines when you take them off.
Also…after the first few jars, I realized I was doing it the wrong way. Well, not wrong, just the hard way. For the little leaves I made, I was cutting out the shapes first and then sticking them on the jar. But I realized it would be SO much easier to stick the tape or contact paper on the jar first, then cut out the shapes directly on the jar.

It worked so much easier to cut the designs right on the jar. i don’t know why i wasn’t doing that in the first place. I was able to do more detail work and I love how they all turned out!
This was such a fun and easy project…and now I have more jars than I know what to do with.
Good thing it’s Christmas time and I can give a ton away as presents!!