Thursday, May 26, 2011

Personalized Pyrex


I wanted to do something a little special for my future daughter-in-law (hope she doesn’t check out my blog before her shower!) so I decided to get the Pyrex on her gift registry and etch her soon-to-be married name on each piece.

 
I used ArmourEtch cream that I got at Hobby Lobby (by the way, it was $8.99 for this little jar there but the same jar was $12.99 at JoAnn’s!), some cheapo contact paper from the dollar store (clear is best but they didn’t have any so I got one with the faintest pattern I could find), an old paint brush, x-acto knife and a light table (you could tape everything to a window to do the tracing also) and a sharpie, rubbing alcohol and an old rag.

 
I printed out our name in a font I liked and taped that upside down on the light table. 







Then I taped the contact paper with the DESIGN FACING UP TOWARDS ME, tracing the name using the sharpie.  This was probably the hardest part for me as I’m pretty sure this involves some kind of mathematical and/or logical thought, neither of which are in my arsenal.  Even after I did the first one right, I did two more wrong!  Ugg!


 
With an x-acto knife I cut out the letters, being sure to save the inside circles for the “a” and “b”. Use rubbing alcohol to clean the glass well and then apply the contact paper.  Be sure not to touch the glass with your fingers because the oils from your hands will repel the cream.  I just used the alcohol rag to press all the edges down.

 
Apply the cream with the paintbrush and wait.  The bottle said 1-5 minutes.  After about 5 minutes, I washed the glass and contact paper under cold water and dried.  I can tell you that at first it looks like nothing happened until you remove the contact paper and see that the glass is indeed frosted/etched.

You can by special stencils to cut out your images but they’re not cheap and the contact paper worked just fine.  Only downside is it’s not reusable so you have to cut out a new one for each item you’re etching.  These were hard to photograph -- the etching is actually very 'solid' although the pics look otherwise. 

I boxed them all back up and added a card on the top of the box that reads:  "Each of your serving dishes has been personalized and etched with:  "Zaubi".  

I figure if she doesn't like them, I can use them -- haha!

6 comments:

  1. What a great idea! And a great gift!

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  2. I have used that etching cream before and love it, currently thinking of some etched crowns on wine glasses.
    Have a lovely weekend!
    XXX Ido

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  3. That is a great gift idea. I would love to try that. Thanks for linking it up!
    Sherry

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  4. Hi Lauren,
    Thi is so clever, I never knew there was an etching cream!
    She will love them, I'll bet you'll have to make another set for yourself:-)
    Hugs,
    Bella

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  5. That would make for a wonderful gift.

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  6. Great gift and great idea! LOL - and I like that you can use it if she doesn't like it!!

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