DIY Etched 'Christmasy Words' Wine Glasses

I used Instagram Lomo-fi... trying to get more detail to see the words.  I need to work on camera skills

While at Hobby Lobby, I found this amazing, yet rather dangerous, cream that will etch glass for you.  It is called Armour Etch.  If you go buy it, do not forget to cut out a coupon from their website!  The large bottle was $20 without the coupon.  Armour Etch is super simple to use... just takes a bit of planning if you do not have a Cricut or Silhouette (which I do not).  I had been planning to try to paint some wine glasses for my mom for Christmas, but then thought etching words into the wine glasses might be even cooler.  Here is how 'joy' turned out:

Joy using Hefe from Instagram.

Overall, I am happy with the way they look, although the words would have been much more crisp if I had a silhouette rather than having to hand cut with an exacto knife.  My hubs said the hand cutting makes them look more "vintage" ::shrugs:: Works for me!

Here is what I did, first I used 72 pt font (Garamond) to print out Christmasy words, like joy, merry, believe, noel, peace.  I then cut a box around the words, and taped it to contact paper.  I then also cut out a box around the word on the contact paper, and taped the whole thing down on my cutting mat.

Once I taped it down, I cut out the insides of letters first (like o, e,) and set the inside part aside for later.  I then attempted to cut carefully around the edges.  This is when I realized that serifs are NOT my friend. Pretend you didn't notice the wonky letters.  Also, it is hard to cut curves with a straight knife.  Just saying.

Once I had all the letters cut out, I peeled the paper word off of the contact paper to make sure it cut all the way through, and then peeled the backing off the contact paper.  I placed the words on the glass at a point I thought was a little more on the straight side.  Once the contact paper was on, I just pushed bubbles out with my nail.  I also carefully placed the inside of the "o" and "e" on (using the exacto knife for placement helped).

Ignore the dirty windows.  They were clean until the farmer took his corn out, and now dirt always blows on them.

You then slather the cream on, and wait 5 minutes.  Rinse it off with warm water.  Do not touch it, or try to eat it.  The warnings on the bottle are giving me anxiety attacks... like I might accidentally swallow some and etch my stomach.

And voila... some cute etched wine glasses for Christmas dinner!

Instagram Brannan

Now... in the picture above, you might notice that my Joy cup has a red bottom.  I decided to attempt to paint the bottom red... we'll see how it looks when dry and baked.  I used tape around the stem in order to try for a clean line.  The paint I am using is called Vitrea 160 (by Pebeo).  It is a transparent paint... in Pepper Red.  I am using this paint because if you mess up, it easily wipes off before it dries.  Also, because after it dries you bake it in the oven, the glasses are then washable and more durable.  I think it is actually dishwasher safe too, but I would have to double check.

The great thing about this project, is that it is relatively inexpensive, even with the more pricey Armour Etch.  I used a 40% off coupon bringing it down to $12.  This bottle could have made like 100 wine glasses, so I will be etching LOTS of stuff soon.  I have plans for that cream! The wine glasses I got at the Dollar Tree for, yep... a dollar each.  The paint was $5.  Contact paper was like $3. 

All in all, a successful DIY for me!