I’m excited to be back with this month’s Inspire My Creativity Link-up. For October we were tasked with a “Thrift Store Makeover.” Since my blog is all gift ideas, I also needed to have my makeover work as a gift.
After combing the aisles of my local thrift store, I found these beautiful glass bowls and I had two thoughts…Candy dish and Jewelry bowl, so I decided to make both! These cost 75 cents each so they make a great frugal gift idea.
Glass dish etching How-To
Besides the glass dishes, you will also need Etching Cream and paintbrushes. You should also wear disposable gloves to protect your hands.
First, wash and prepare the dishes for etching. You will need to do this in a well-ventilated room.
I used my Cricut to cut vinyl out in the shapes and letters I needed. For the Christmas Candy Dish I wrote JOY and put two leaping reindeer. For the jewelry dish I wrote my daughter’s name and then added some small rectangles like confetti. If you don’t have a Cricut or Silouhette, you can use glass etching stencils like these:
Apply the vinyl or stencils firmly onto the glass, then paint etching cream. My plan was to etch just the letters and the shapes, but there were enough tiny scratches on the dishes that I did the opposite and etched most of the glass.
In the interest of full disclosure…
1)My etching cream was a little old and clumpy, hahaha! I also think that my dishes didn’t etch quite as well because the cream was old! Oops!!
2) Pictures of etched glass are IMPOSSIBLE! It is so hard to see in these pictures, but it looks great in person.
The instructions say to leave the cream on for one minute…I wanted my etching to be darker so I waited three minutes and then rinsed off the cream. In retrospect I would have done a few more applications to get it darker but my cream was so bad that I stopped. I then peeled off the vinyl stickers and was done! Look how cute!
You could probably make your own customized DIY Candy/Jewelry dish for around $1 each. They would be so fun as neighbor/co-worker gifts. In mine, I added some mints and a cute printable tag (which you can get for free when you sign up for my Gifty Girl Email newsletter below)
Is this a DIY project you’d like to try? There were TONS of glass dishes at our local thrift store, tell me if you find some where you live!
Now it’s time to check out the other posts by my fellow “Inspire My Creativity” bloggers.
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And don’t forget to join us next month for our November theme (which is kinda my jam 😉 ) DIY Gift Ideas.
I hope this inspired a gift idea for you! Please join me on Facebook and Instagram so you are always up-to-date on my latest creative and unique gift ideas.
Happy Gifting!
Steph
Jaclyn Borrelli
Monday 15th of October 2018
It looks so easy! I haven't tried etching yet...soon!!!
Christine
Saturday 13th of October 2018
Such a perfect neighbor gift! I haven't done glass etching for a long time but this makes me want to revisit it. I love the designs you created!
Victoria @DazzleWhileFrazzled
Thursday 11th of October 2018
Cool craft idea! May have to try this for easy DIY holiday gifts. Visiting from Inspire My Creativity party.
Jenny
Thursday 11th of October 2018
What a great gift idea because it can be personalized for anyone. I haven't etched glass yet, but I can't wait to try. I always see glass bowls, etc at the thrift store.
Amy Pelzner
Wednesday 10th of October 2018
What a fun idea! I love glass etching but have never done it on a bowl. I'm sure the recipient will love it!