Glass Etching

A few weeks before Christmas I saw a blog post on Kevin & Amanda about Glass Etching with her Silhouette machine. Well, I don't have one of those, however I DO have a Cricut... so I thought surely there was a way to do it with that too. I looked up a video on YouTube, and found a great tutorial for glass etching with your Cricut here.
So, I thought for Christmas gifts for my Church friends I would try this out. We are ALWAYS having to take a dish to SOMETHING, and you'll never have to guess at who's is who's when you make customized dishes! Also, when you go to a function where your not sure who made what, you can look at the name on the side and decide if you want to eat from their dish or not! ;)
Here's the process:
1) First, you have to make sure you measure how big the space is your going to put the etching on, then cut your vinyl just like you would any other vinyl project on your Cricut:
2) The youtube Tutorial tells you to use transfer adhesive... However, I just use masking tape (a trick I learned when I worked at a sign-shop in College) and it works just as well and is MUCH cheaper! Make sure to get as many of the air bubbles out at possible. (Also, cut off the excess tape that is not covering the vinyl: something I did NOT due on this one)3) Next, slowly peal the masking tape away from the vinyl, the vinyl should be left sticking on the dish. IMPORTANT TIP: Get EVERY air bubble out that you can... especially between the letters... if you don't, your etching creme will seep underneath the vinyl while it's drying and you will get a not-so-desired look! I would also suggest leaving a little more vinyl on the ends than I did on this one.

4) I used the Glass Etching creme found in the Craft isle of Hobby Lobby... and one of those cheap foam brushes you get 3 for like $1



5) Cover the vinyl carefully with the creme (just slather it on there real thick... at this stage it does NOT have to look nice!) Leave it sit at least anywhere from 10-15 minutes (you may have to hold it to get it to sit upright so the creme doesn't run down)


6) CAREFULLY wipe off the creme, make sure you don't let the etching creme move outside of the vinyl or you will be etching where you don't want to be!


That's it! How easy is that??? You'll never have to eat a strangers food again!