Sam Quilts : Glass Etching Tutorial

Glass Etching (No Cricut Method!)

Materials: Glass Dish – Anchor Hocking in this demo 8 X 8 inches
Etching Cream
Exacto Knife
Contact Paper
Paint Brush – Or a foam brush – I used a Q-Tip in this demo
Blue Painters Tape
Sharpie
Popsicle Stick – or other tool to rub with…
Printed desired font. Don’t’ do anything vulgar – this stuff is permanent!

I use this etching cream. I bought it off eBay over many years ago. And it is a brown color. The color of the etching cream is not relevant. This is a pint. I will never EVER use it all. Everything I have read, including the warning label, says to wear gloves & eye protection. I figure if it is stored in PLASTIC it cannot be all that bad….however, Use good judgment & follow the manufacturer’s directions. I will not be held responsible for idiocy.

Exacto Knife. Nice sharp blade. It will cut fingers. I know this. Contact paper. I have & use CLEAR contact paper because #1 it is easy to trace on & #2 it’s what I had on hand. Pretty sure that this stuff that I am using is older than the etching cream because I bought it when the kids were covering books in High School & my youngest child is now 28….so this stuff has a pretty long shelf life.

Make sure that your WORDS are going to fit on the bottom OUTSIDE of the pan you are etching. See my example above. My example was a Christmas gift for my niece. She is young & I wanted something cutsie for her.

In order to get the words readable on the OUTSIDE of the bottom of the pan, you must trace the words BACKWARDS. Place your paper face down on the light box & tape. I used painters tape because it comes off with no residue. Cut a piece of contact paper larger than your paper & tape the contact paper on top of your printed paper. Make SURE that the shiny side is UP & facing YOU.

Here you see how I have meticulously (yah right) traced the outline of the words on my paper. Do not waste your time filling in the letters.

In this picture, I am showing you the BOTTOM of the glass pan.

Peel the paper OFF the contact paper & place the contact paper ON the pan. Sticky side ON THE GLASS.

In this picture, you can see that I have peeled the paper off & stuck the contact paper on the bottom of the pan. As you can see, it is still backwards. But only if you are looking at it from the backside, it’s right side up when you are looking at the pan from the top!

See? (below pic) Right Side Up!

Now, make sure you have GOOD lighting & take that super sharp exacto knife & start cutting out the letters. Go slow. Small strokes allow you to cut the teeny tiny pieces out. Use the tip of the knife to remove the contact paper.

Once you have all the letters cut out – use your popsicle stick to sort of BURNISH, or rub, all the edges of the letters down. If you skip this step, you will regret it. Most pans have lettering on the bottom & you have to make sure you are stuck well. If all the edges are not stuck down good on the glass the etching cream will seep under the contact paper & your letters will be blurred. THEN you will think 2 things: #1 Sam does not know what she’s talking about or #2 Your supplies are cruddy. However, you will not blame yourself!

Now comes the FUN part! Take your etching cream & smear it all over the glass in the areas where you removed the contact paper. It does not take much. As you can see, I was pretty liberal, but in truth, that is probably too much. After you have completed the ABOVE step.

Walk away from this project. Let it sit about 15 minutes.

Longer is better. Less is not.

Just LEAVE IT ALONE.

After about 15 to 20 minutes. Take it to the sink & wash it off with hot water. If you left the etching cream on to dry overnight, you have a LOT of washing to do! Once it is dried, it is really hard to get off. So? Do not let it sit overnight! Once the cream is all washed off, peel the contact paper off & wash with soap & water.