Hello there…we have a bit of a Christmas hangover around here, so moving slowly.

I had many questions about the glass etching that the Birdies attempted a few weeks ago, so I thought as I was finishing up Christmas gifts last night (um, yes…the day AFTER Christmas) I would snap some photos and show you how we did our glass etching. And trying to take photos in our house at night just solidified our quest for new lighting…that is on the menu for next week while Daddy is home. Apologies for the not so great photography yet again. Perhaps if I actually crafted in the daytime it would be a nice change, huh?

So for glass etching…it all begins on the computer. Using the software that came with Eva (our Silhouette machine) I design what we want etched.

And then we plug in Eva and let her do her magic. Cut out the designs on adhesive vinyl, by the way – this is a good way to use up any scraps of vinyl you have, although I did a lot of etching last night so I stacked all my designs into one sheet.

While your vinyl is cutting out, wash and dry your glassware. It is really important to not get any oils from your fingers where you want to etch, the etching cream doesn’t stick to the glass if it is dirty.

When your vinyl is cut and glassware is clean, you start “weeding” out the design. You essentially want to remove the vinyl anywhere you want etched. It is very handy to have a dental pick for this step.

In this one – the black parts are where the glass will be protected, and the white parts will be etched. I wanted the “V” to be glass, but an etched circle around it, and another etched, larger ring around the circle.

Once you have your designs weeded, you’ll need to use transfer tape, which is clear tape you put over the top of the design that allows you to transfer your design to the glass. We used painter’s tape as a guide so that all of our designs on the wineglass set would be even. Putting a piece of tape at the rim of the glass, I then lined the top of my ring up with the bottom of the piece of tape. It is a sort of inexact measurement, but it works.

While you still have the transfer tape on the glass, (remember no fingers on the glass!) rub down the design really well. I mean, REALLY WELL. Especially around the edges, using something like a credit card, make sure the edges are really adhered otherwise you will have some bleeding from the design. Carefully peel off the transfer tape, and then you are ready to etch.

This is the etching cream we have been using. It is kinda toxic and has a million warnings all over it, it is essentially acid that eats glass, so yeah…be careful with it.

I also like to surround my edges of adhesive with painter’s tape too…just to be safe since I’m a little bit of a sloppy painter. Apply a nice, even sort of thick application to the open vinyl areas.

If you can lie your piece down, it helps with the running of the cream. This obviously isn’t always ideal since glasses are round and like to roll, but if you can prop it up like so, it definitely helps.

Let the cream sit for 10-15 minutes and then wash off with warm water. For stronger glass you might want to leave it on longer, I left it on some glass ornaments I did for 30 minutes and it still didn’t etch as well as the wineglasses did. You might need to experiment…get extra glasses!

And…voila! Handmade, personalized gifts that you’ll want to keep yourself!

(This one is for our friends who make amazing lemon drops!)

Let me know if you try to etch some glass! We’d love to see your creations, too!

I just took a break from sewing the buttons on my little gift card purses so I could pop in here for a bit of Crafty Tuesday. I have some last little bits to finish on the purses (they really are coming…this week, Aunt Laura!) and I snapped some photos as I was putting a few together so I can throw a little tutorial up for anyone who might need to put a few of these together for Christmas cards. I’ll shoot for getting that up for CT next week, so stay tuned.

We do have some other gifts today. My friend and I wanted to give all of our fantastic scone bakers and coffee sellers (from our First Friday Coffee fundraiser at school) a little something and we decided to treat them to a cup of coffee. So I rustled up some coffee cozys and we are going to put a Sbux gift card in each of them.

I used up a bunch of sweater scraps that I had from gifts last year and of course brought back my very favorite chalkboard fabric! I didn’t really embellish them besides the chalkboard fabric and a few of the pieces were just a little bit short so I ended up making a wrap with a button to keep it fastened around the cup. It works just fine and also used up some of my hair elastics that break whenever I try to put too much hair into them.

And for some sweet tasting gifts. Addie and I made these little mini pies in jars for Thanksgiving! We brought some over to our neighbors for dessert.

J. and I just put two in the oven the other night to warm the apple goodness all up and in five minutes, yum….our very own personal little pies.

I especially like that it is just enough pie to make you feel like you had something, but not too much…good portion control. Although in hindsight we should have spent more time looking for the shorter jars, ours were skinny and tall and kind of hard to get the crust down to the bottom. But I made little tags for the tops and tied a little twine around it and good to go as cute little gifts!

Filing that away as good little gifts to give…or keep.

I also need to find a way to file these little leaves away and keep them. We started a tradition this year by writing three things we are thankful for on these leaves we sort of freehand cut, about five minutes before dinner. Then the girls took turns reading them out loud (you can watch it here if you really want to see/hear them!). I am thinking I need to get a “Thankful” book, one that we can add to each year. For now the leaves are spread out on our dining room table, along with all the other projects we have brewing.

Do you all have some Thanksgiving goodies to share, or have you already left November in the dust and are on to Christmas, glorious Christmas crafts?!