Champagne Beach - DIY Glass Etching

This week is going to be a fun one! We picked a shade called “Champagne Beach” by Tarte and it’s a gold sparkly shade which I’d love to try out. So sparkly, so gorgeous! We are going to do something that we have never tried before and that’s glass etching.

Inspired by our shade of the week, we are going to try glass etching on champagne glasses.

Before even starting, we went on a field trip and bought some champagne glasses (we were surprised at how inexpensive they were and such good quality too). We also picked up a glass etching cream by Folk Art. You can buy some stencils (sticky ones are good for this) or you can do what we are doing and that is to make your own (we are doing this in a couple of different ways).

When we got home we thought up some designs for these glasses. We bought six of them so we are going to try out a variety of techniques and designs. We went with some more generic and Summery designs that can be enjoyed at any time but this would be a fun project for weddings and bridal showers as well. In our research we saw lots of initials etched, but that might be better with a bought stencil as nice lettering is harder to cut freehand like we are doing to make some of our stencils.

We printed a turtle and seashell on sticky label paper and cut them out like this...

Another way to put a design on a glass is by creating a design with masking tape or painter’s tape...

To make polka dots, we will use reinforcements on the glass.

As something different, we wanted to make the entire glass have that etched look and then make our design “clear” so we're punching out a couple of sizes of hearts (on sticky labels or paper) and scattering them on the glass.

Before even starting, please read the instructions on your glass etching kit/cream. Make sure you are in a well ventilated area and have on something to protect your clothing as well as rubber gloves and maybe even a mask. You don’t want to get this stuff on your skin so make sure you are careful.

First of all make sure you have a clean protected area to do your glass etching. Make sure the glasses are wiped with rubbing alcohol and then washed with warm soap and water.

Prepare your glasses by laying out the designs.

Now apply the glass etching cream to the areas on your glasses that you want. Remember not to apply the etching cream to any areas of your glass that you don’t want etched. Cover these areas and tape them off.

The etching cream that we used was quite runny and thin compared to the thicker ones that we saw on some video tutorials. We tried shaking it up but it still stayed very runny so we applied a couple layers.

The first layer was thinner so we patted it on and tried to make it as even as possible. Since it was so runny, we had to lay the glasses down as they were drying so that they didn’t drip. That didn’t work 100% for us though.

After the layers have dried (for the brand of cream we used, it was about 15 minutes from the last layer that we applied) you can run the glasses under room temperature water and wash off all of the etching cream. This will also help loosen the stencils and tape that you applied on. Make sure you wash the glasses really well before using them.

We were pretty much happy with how they turned out. Some of the etching cream must have run through our stencils or the stencils weren’t stuck down enough so you might want to try a vinyl peel and stick style stencil or just make sure the stickers are really stuck down. Or you might want to make sure that your etching cream is a thicker one.

Overall, our glass etching turned out quite well. At first we thought the etching was kind of light but after leaving them a couple of days, we can actually see it quite nicely on the glasses!

Fun Gift Wrapping

With just a few days left before Christmas, many of us are probably scrambling to wrap the gifts we bought for others. I know that’s the way I usually am! If you want to spruce up your gifts a bit this year then we can help. I know it’s the thought that counts for the gift, but when it comes to the “wrapper” it’s kind of nice to have something a little bit more exciting and different. Some times when I get a fancy wrapped gift I get truly excited just for the gift wrap and I don’t want to open it; it could almost be a decoration. I think it’s so much fun wrapping gifts especially if you do it in an interesting way. I often will find different shaped boxes to wrap my gifts in, maybe add some rocks inside etc. to make it seem like something totally opposite from what’s actually in there. You can also wrap the gift in your own homemade wrapping which we shared with you a couple of Christmas’ ago - see it here.

You can also turn your gift into a decoration to make it look like something else, like these ones...

After looking at your gift, decide on a “thing” to turn it into. Some shaped gifts are easier to turn into things than others.

Be creative. Start off by wrapping your presents in a plain brown wrap or newsprint and then go from there.

If you wrapped coloured paper around the gift then you can draw things onto it to give it depth like seen in the fireplace gifts. You can also paint it or colour it with felt if you prefer, like the doghouse and car. The giant sled has some cardstock attachments and some colouring on it.

To alter your gift shape a bit, you can use cardstock to add on shapes as most of these gifts have.

You can attach tissue, sticks, cardstock cut outs, or even felt/fabric like how the stockings are on one of the fireplace mantles.

You can also attach things on the outside to elevate your gift.

Wrap your presents first in the wrapping paper of your choice.

For the angels paint a face on cardstock. The body and the wings are made of wide gold ribbon with the wire edge so you can position them as you like. A skinny ribbon gets attached on for the arms. Then used gold braid as accent but you can also use it for the hair. Just pull it apart gently and attached as desired. Glue it all on with a glue gun directly onto the wrapped gift.

The candle gift was also wrapped first and then the candles were attached afterwards. To make the candles, little cylinder tubes were wrapped in red tissue paper (you can make some from cardboard or cardstock if you have nothing like that hanging around your house). The holly used to cover the ends of the candles was real but you can use fake as well. Then attach flames made from shiny gold wrapping paper and adorn with little festive bits like bells, ribbon, bows etc.

However you wrap your presents will be much appreciated I’m sure, but if you want to try something a little different now you have some ideas to run with!