Easier Than You Think

I always try to keep it simple for the holidays. We all have everything we need, and I have developed an aversion to the excess junk we all tend to accumulate. This year, for our nieces and nephews I decided to personalize some jars for them and fill them with candy and assorted little treats. When the treats are done, they can use the jars for coins or others treasures.

At first, I thought about painting the jars with names, then I considered using adhesive vinyl, and then I realized that as long as I was using adhesive vinyl, I may as well go ahead and try some etching. The result is very impressive, and the process is surprisingly easy.



One of the big factors that made this easy is that I have a Silhouette SD which is a digital cutting tool. Basically, a printer that cuts instead of printing. I used some contact vinyl paper that I had leftover from covering the shelves in the pantry, cut it to size to fit on the Silhouette's carrier sheet and cut the stencils from that.

It was a little tricky to position the stencils on the jars, but the contact paper is fairly forgiving if you are careful. Once the stencil is positioned, you can use masking tape to cover any other areas where you don't want the etching cream to get.

The etching cream is a little expensive, but I was able to complete the projects in the picture, plus one other and I still have a lot left.

All you need to do now, is brush the cream onto the cutout areas on the stencil. Wear rubber gloves for this. This etching cream eats glass, I wouldn't want to think about what it would do to your skin. Be careful to cover all the parts you want etched. I used a palette knife to spread the cream evenly. The first experiment I did, came out a little blotchy because the cream was not done in an even coat. Using the palette knife to spread it fixed that problem.

The directions say to leave the cream on for 5 minutes; I think I left mine on a little bit longer (maybe 7 minutes or so) and I was happy with my results. When the time is up, just rinse the cream off with water, remove the stencil and wash the glass. Let it dry and you are done!