Creating Lovelinesst: DIY etched wine glass...

One of my favorite things to do with my honey bunny is date nights at home. We grab our personalized wine glasses and a few bottles of wine, order take out and watch some good ol' TV on the couch! Well, while on our "date night" last week SOMEBODY had one too many glasses of wine (Errol), knocked over my glass and broke it!!! Why couldn't he break his own? It's always my stuff he breaks. It might be his passive aggressive way of getting back at me. For what? I'm not sure because I'm an amazingly wonderful partner who NEVER has attitude or is stubborn or call him out on his BS. I'm a peach! Anywho, now I'm left without a glass with my name on it and that needs to be fixed.

It's actually a pretty easy fix. This is one of my favorite gifts to make (I hope my BFF isn't reading this cause I haven't made one for her...YET!). I mean, who doesn't like wine? People who aren't my friends. That's who. You can also do this project on those giant glass beer mugs. Guys love those! We're wine drinkers in my home, so we have wine glasses.

Everyone who really knows me knows that I HATE spending money. Unless it's on shoes, I heart Loubs!! SO, luckily for us half of these materials could be purchased at the dollar store. The dollar store literally has the best most resilient wine glasses. I'm really shocked this glass has made it this long! I mean, I load them on the bottom rack of the dishwasher! I've purchased expensive wine glasses and NEVER AGAIN! I'm a clumsy ass person with a child and a clumsy ass other half. These suckers need to last okay? Make sure you don't get the bubbly globe looking ones because 1. they're ugly and I don't want them in your home, and 2. They're much more difficult to etch because of their shape. Also at the dollar store, get some contact paper! Okay, full list of materials...

Materials:

wine glasses or glass beer mugs (dollar store)
light colored contact paper (dollar store)
etching cream (Michaels($14 ish- please use a 40% off coupon!)
cutting machine or a x-acto knife and printer

I'm gonna use my Silhouette portrait to cut out my name, BUT I have done it the good old fashioned way before and although it's a little more work, it's worth the end result.

To do it by hand:

Use word or even notepad (or any word processor), find a font that is chunky and bold because that will make better cutting lines and you'll be able to see your word more clearly. Type your word, a little over an inch high is a good height. Also, if you don't find a font you like, you can buy fonts online or search Pinterest for free fonts. Just don't download anything sketchy y'all! You don't want a virus.
Print your word or design.
Now, some old school stuff. Shade the back side of your printed design with a pencil. Yes, we are really gonna do this! Shade that design so we can trace it!! Make it thick!
Trace your design onto the contact paper. The pencil shading will leave a perfect outline of your design. This is why you need light contact paper.
Cut around the contact paper a good 1/2 inch around your design and stick it onto your glass.
With your x-acto knife trace around your design and peel away the contact paper from your design. REMEMBER the part that's showing is what's going to be etched!

My craft setup (don't mind that popcorn on the floor!)

With a cutter:

Pick out your font or design and send it to the cutter. I attached a photo of my silhouette settings so you can put the contact paper in without using a mat.
Cut around your design, leaving a 1/2 inch around the edge and stick it to your glass.

For BOTH:

EASIEST PART! Get a thick layer of etching cream on your design. Make sure the cream is only touching the glass parts you want etched. I would tell you you need a brush or something but really, you could put that on with a spoon and it would be fine!
Follow the etching cream instructions. Depending on the brand, they might be different. I only had to leave mine on for 60 seconds.