Apothecary Glass Jar Etching

Hey guys!!!! It's Thursday, which is one day closer to Friday and one more day closer to the New Year!!! I wanted to share with you the DIY Christmas gifts I made so tomorrow I can share with you my goals for 2011 and some furniture I got over the last month.

For Christmas I made my best friend and my in-laws personalized apothecary jars. They weren't necessarily personalized with their names, but rather something that is personal to them. My best friend, who creates some amazing jewelry under the moniker Archaic Mementos, is always full of ideas so I wanted to give her a place to write them down before they flew away (she likes birds so I had to tie that in). As for my in-laws, well things have been tough this past year financially for a lot of us, especially them, so I wanted to give them a place to write their hopes down. I figured, before you lose any hope you better write it down and keep it safe.

I would like to admit that this idea is definitely not one I created myself. I have seen glass etching done before as a craft, but before Thanksgiving Young House Love shared with their fans a wonderful idea for a "Thanks" jar for their home. Every day starting Nov. 1 they would write what they were thankful for and put it in the jar until Thanksgiving day when they take them out and read them all. I thought, what a great stinkin' idea for a present! Because I like to challenge myself with a creative idea I decided to hit up Hobby Lobby to buy the supplies and take a chance at the tutorial.

My two standard apothecary jars. Check this out, I got them half off! Score!

I love Hobby Lobby 50% off sales.

The "ideas" font is called Bauhaus 93 and wouldn't you know I didn't save the file to print these out so I don't remember the other font I used for "hopes". FYI: I find great free fonts at 1001freefonts.com. I used some 1.5 inch painters tape (that needed to be overlapped because it wasn't wide enough) and some masking tape to hold the paper down to the painters tape to the cutting board. 

I took an X-acto knife and carefully and slowly cut the letters out of the tape. If you are doing this, make sure your knife is sharp to get those corners well. Then I pulled up the letters and pulled up the painters tape and centered it on the glass. I put two strips of tape on either side to be safe.  

Yeah... I lost my O, P and E middles in my "hopes". Oh well, I hoped it would turn out ok. (Ha! I had to throw that in). The Bauhaus font was one continuous line so I didn't loose any insides of those letters. In YHL's tutorial they lost their a-hole in Thanks... and because I have an inner 12 year old inside of me like they do in them I thought it was hilarious.

Then, because I have a slightly large case of OCD and I was nervous I was going to screw up, I made sure I had their tutorial open on my phone so I could keep referring back to what I needed to do when putting the Armor Etch glass etching cream on. Another FYI: this tiny bottle is expensive, but a little goes a looooong way if you plan on doing small projects like this. I did apply it thick with a small paint brush to make sure the letters were completely covered up. I only let the cream sit for about a minute and a half because that's what Sherry and John did in their tutorial and I'm a by the book kinda gal. I noticed the tape starting to melt a little and rinsed it off immediately.

I bought some scrap book paper in colors I knew my present getters would like. Green and purple for the in-laws and this really cool dark and light blue tree pattern paper that had a deep red bird print on it for my bestie.

And here is the finished result:

This is definitely a project I didn't master the first time around mainly because the cream bled a little and there are parts around some letters that are smudged. Plus I don't think it sat long enough to "etch" darker. Don't get me wrong, I think they are pretty cool looking and unique enough to be personalized. I just think next time I will find a different "tape" material to carve into that will be able to withstand the cream.

Have you guys tried any etching projects? Did they turn out like this?

Please make me feel better tell me they did... I mean, share your stories with me!!!

;)

See ya tomorrow everyone!

~ Susan ~