Friday, September 21, 2012

Etched glass monogram mason jar tutorial!

Like so many nights, when everybody's fast asleep, I lay in bed, trying to convince my brain, "It's time to sleep now.  People NEED sleep.  YOU need sleep.  Stop thinking about painting, decorating, opening up a tea shop, a bed and breakfast and STOP moving your legs for Pete sake!"  (Restless leg syndrome)

I'm what I like to consider an "idea person."  I have approximately 3.43 MILLION ideas each and every waking day.  Some of them are killer ideas that would probably make me very rich, some of them?  MMMM...notsomuch.  The thing is, though, they never stop coming.  I'm like an endless fountain of ideas.

And so today, my friends, I have the pleasure of showing you one of the ones that stuck--it was even approved by my idea filter, "Luke."  Instead of his usual "mmmmhmmm" followed by silence, I got a "ya, dath coo," followed by silence.  THAT my friend, is a winner!

So without further adieu, here we go!

First, here are the things you'll need:
1. Armour etch glass etching cream (Amazon.com was the cheapest place I found it.  I even got free shipping!)
2.  Soft, small paint brush
4.  A clean glass mason jar
5.  Did you notice I skipped #3?
You just looked.
6.  Monogram decal (https://www.etsy.com/listing/110135328/set-of-12-monogram-decals-for-quart)
7.  Water.

Alright!  To start out, you're going to take your clean glass jar and set it on its side.

If you're using a vinyl decal, you're going to flip the whole decal over so that the gridded side is facing up.
Carefully peel the backing paper (gridded paper) away from the clear transfer tape, making sure that your decal is adhering to the transfer tape.  Like this:





Discard the backing paper.  You should be left with your decal stuck to your transfer tape.

Next, ever so carefully hover your decal over the surface of the side of your glass jar, being careful not to let them come into contact with each other.  Yet.

Eye-ball the spot you'd like to put your decal, and gently lay the decal onto the glass in that exact spot.  The only tricky part of this whole little project is that once your decal has come into contact with the glass, that's IT.  There really isn't any going back or repositioning.  You're committed.  Now of course, if you happen to get the decal on REALLY crooked, you can take the whole thing off and start with a new decal.  That's ok.

Your jar should now look like this:

You're going to want to take a credit card or a license and gently but firmly rub the surface of your transfer tape.  We want the decal to be stuck to the glass and not the transfer tape now.  We'll be removing the transfer tape.

So, that's what we're going to do next.  Carefully begin to peel back the transfer tape, making sure that you're not taking any of your decal with it. You're going to have to really watch to make sure!

Here's what you DON'T want to happen:

If you notice that the decal IS peeling back, just back up a little bit by laying the transfer tape back down in that spot and rubbing it firmly onto the glass.  A couple passes should get it to behave.

See how the decal is sticking to the glass now?  That's gooood. 


Ok!  So now that our decal is applied, the hard part is over!!

You're going to get out your soft paintbrush and etching cream.  Dip your paintbrush into the etching cream and start to apply it to your glass within the bounds of the decal.  Clean up any oopsies right away with a paper towel or it'll be a permanent oopsie etched into your otherwise fabulously beautiful mason jar.

Coverage should be pretty thick, like this:



Now, we wait.  On my pilot jar, I waited 10 minutes.  Based on my results, that's what I'd recommend.

I also recommend using this time to visit pinterest if you haven't already.  Seriously.  What better way to waste ten minutes?

Alrighty!  Now that's it has been ten minutes, we're going to move to the sink.  Take your sprayer hose and blast the etching cream off with some warm water.  (I should probably recommend using caution so you don't spray any etching cream on yourself, but you're smart.  I'm sure you already thought of that.)  Some of your decal might start to come off.  That's ok!  We don't need it anymore!

When you're done rinsing the cream off, you can start to peel the rest of the decal off.  It should come off pretty easily since you used warm water.

And so NOW, my friends, dry off you jar and admire your work!  It looks BOOTYFUL, doesn't it??




3 comments:

  1. That is FABULOUS!! And, GREAT instructions!! Loved it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. LOVE THIS! Very informative! Would love to try it!

    ReplyDelete