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!

Quick and Easy Valentine's Day Crafts

As Valentine’s Day approaches, we have found some sweet and simple crafts to make for someone special in your life. They are not very hard crafts to make. You might already have many of the supplies handy at home.

First up...yarn heart. This one is super simple. Find some yarn in the colour that you want your heart to be. Next find some sturdy cardboard. I had a box that I was recycling so we cut that up. Trace whatever size heart you want to make onto the cardboard and cut it out. 

Tie the yarn around the heart to secure it and tape the end of the yarn onto the heart. Begin to wrap. Wrap in all directions and to whatever thickness you like; tie a knot at the end when you're done. 

Eventually you have something like this... You can attach something to hang it up with or you can lay it down somewhere as a decoration.

https://www.easypeasyandfun.com/yarn-wrapped-hearts-craft/

This next one is more for the kids. It super cute! We’re going to use hearts to make a Valentine bee.

You will need red or pink, black, and yellow cardstock. Cut two large hearts from each of these colours (ours are 3 ¼ inches wide and about 2 inches deep from the middle indent of the heart to the bottom point).

You will also need two red smaller hearts (we punched them with our 1 inch heart punch) and two mini hearts which we punched out as well. The mini hearts are for the “mouth” so you want them to be a bit smaller.

Use a black heart for the bottom and then layer yellow on top, then black, and then yellow again. Make sure there is an even amount of each colour showing in the layers except for the last yellow heart which you will see all of because that is the face.

Glue on the red heart wings next so that they stick out from each side.

Now for the antennas, you can use pipe cleaners if you have them or we just cut out some slightly curvy antennas out of black cardstock. Attach your medium hearts to the ends of these.

Lastly you have to complete your face. Get as fancy as you would like. You can use stickers, googly eyes, or you can draw on two little eyes like we did. We drew a little smiley face and then put those mini hearts at either ends. Cute!

https://fromabcstoacts.com/bee-mine-valentine/

If you want a no fuss super easy craft, then this one’s for you. You will need some coloured paper or patterned paper which is what we used. Cardstock is too thick for this.

Cut a large fat heart out of your paper. Ours measured 7 inches wide and 5 ¼ inches from the middle indent to the bottom point.

If you are using patterned paper, then put it pattern side down and then fold the sides towards the centre so that they overlap slightly.

Fold the top towards the middle so that it looks like an envelope.

Now fold your envelope flap down (it should be a triangle) and close it with a heart sticker. 

Before sealing it you can write a love/special message in the centre of the heart so when someone opens it up, they see your message.

https://www.marthastewart.com/269660/folding-envelope-hearts

I’ve kept the most complex out of these simple Valentine’s crafts for last.

Out of some sturdy cardstock, make a template of a 2 inch wide heart to trace along with a 3 inch one. We cut our smaller hearts out of a pattern piece of paper and another one out of our homemade pink paper. The two bigger hearts were cut out of a white cardstock that had a simple 3D line design on it.

Now glue the little heart onto the middle of the big heart.

With an exacto knife cut around the bottom half of your inside smaller heart, almost like you are tracing it with your knife. You should have a little slit to slip the pages of a book through.

https://www.marthastewart.com/273705/heart-bookmark

Here are all the finished products. Super easy to make and super cute!