Tuesday, June 18, 2013

My First Glass Etching!

     I didn't have a clue what to get my husband for Father's Day.  While making the invitations for sister's birthday party, I came across my Wall Decor and More cartridge that has a very nice/fancy skull and I had just bought some nice wine glasses.  I used some vinyl that my sister gave me, cut the skull and the initials out and tried to place the "mask" of the design onto the glass.  This didn't work out so well and the skull came out crooked.  I then realized that I needed to put the design on tape first so that I could correctly place it on the glass.  I didn't have any of the transfer tape that I've seen people use, so I opted for painters tape.  I wanted to take most of the sticky off the tape so I pressed the tape onto my tee-shirt a couple of times, then over the design and then the whole thing onto the glass.  I press the vinyl down really well and lifted off the painters tape. All looked great on the second glass.  On both glasses, I used a foam brush to put a thick coat of Armour's Glass Etching Cream (pretty sure that is the name of it) and let it sit.  I got anxious and ended up rinsing off the cream ( using warm water ) after just a couple of minutes the first time and the second time, I waited about 7 minutes.  They turned out beautifully, but I think if I had waited 15 minutes on both, the etching would have been deeper and nicer.

     If you want to try glass etching, it's really simple and really fun BUT be very very careful not to allow any of the cream to get anywhere on the glass that you do not want etched.  Even a speck of cream will etch the glass, so when you cut your vinyl, give yourself plenty of edge so that you have room for the cream to slip and slide a bit.



    You might be wondering why I chose to put skulls and these beautiful wine glasses. Well, my husband LOVES skulls, they are just his thing and I was right, he loved them!

Party Invitations

I'm hosting a 50th Birthday Party for my youngest sister with the help of my older sister and niece and although we had all decided to not make the invitations, which would save a load of time, I wasn't able to find any that were suitable.  The only invitations available were for wedding, graduation, child's party, and baby shower.  I ended up making the invites and for the sake of time, I had to keep it simple.  I used the Lacy Labels to cut the basic shape of the invitations (double sided cardstock)  which is really nothing more than a rounded rectangle. I then scored both sides and folded them in.  I used Ivory Cardstock for the insert with all the info being printed on my printer and then ran that through my cuttlebug for the emboss on the sides and the back of the envelope.  I cut the flower shape (Core'dinations Color Core Cardstock) using Cricut Craftroom Basics, ran that through the cuttlebug for the embossing, glued one side of it to the left side of the invitation using Aileens Tacky Glue (I've learned my lesson in using tape runners...although it say's "permanent" it really isn't and things fall off after awhile. This doesn't happen with Tacky Glue.) and then tied the invite together using a pale pink ribbon.