I've been feeling really crafty all weekend so I started my Saturday off with some garage sales, where I was able to pick ups some great goodies. To satisfy my need to create, I decided to make something simple but useful that allows me to recycle and repurpose some items I already had.
If you ready my previous post on How to be a Grateful Guest, these little Martha Stewart dish soap and hand soap bottles should look familiar to you.
I had a couple olive oil bottles hanging around that I couldn't resist keeping for a project. I couldn't bare to just toss them in the recycle bin, as I knew they were the perfect size and shape for some small, narrow vases but also to use for today's project.
Below are the simple step-by-step instructions to create these for your own home:
1. Reuse some glass olive oil bottles or a set of other bottles that you would like to etch.
2. Place a pour spout inside the top of the bottle. I happened to have one from an old salad dressing container but you can easily find them at bed, bath & beyond or another home with kitchen supplies. Many people use these for oil and vinegar.
3. If you want to mongram the bottle with a 'D' for dish soap and and 'H' for hand soap at your kitchen sink, you can easily use vinyl letters that are commonly used for scrapbooking. Remember: Whereever you put a sticker or tape, is where you will not see the etching. So, be sure to use painter's tape or contact paper to cover the areas you want free from etching cream.
4. Wear gloves (the etching cream is corrosive) and be sure to wash all brushes in a stainless steel sink, not a ceramic one as the cream will ruin your sink. Work in a well ventilated area also and use a paint brush to apply a thick coat of the cream and leave on for the directed amount of time. I left mine on for 15 minutes and my bottle is about 8 yrs old so it's lost some of its potency but it still worked.
5. Once you've left it on for an adequate amount of time, rinse all of the cream off of the glass, then peel away the vinyl letter and the painters tape. Give it a good rinse with soap and hot water to clean all cream residue from your bottle. This is what my letter 'D' looks like:
6. Use your preferred brand of soap, either a clear soap or a creamy one would be lovely. For the sake of example, I chose to use some food coloring as well to tint the soap with a pretty blue. I prefer everything in the most purest form, so I used Seventh Generation eco-friendly soap in Lavender. I mixed it in an old glass bottle to get the color I was looking for.
7. Final Result! I added one drop too many of the blue coloring however, it still looks pretty. You can use a pretty ceramic dish to house both your hand and dish soap right next to your sink or package it up for a lovely gift. I am short one pour spout, so I'll be finishing the hand soap part of the project once I pick it up and it will remain it's natural clear color.
The cost for this project was free for me because I already had all of the supplies already on hand. The glass bottles were old olive oil bottles, I already owned the painter's tape and vinyl stickers as well as the dish soap and pour spout. A bottle of glass etching cream costs about $8 at Michael's but you can make so many lovely gifts such as glass ball ornaments, monogrammed wine glasses, or drinking glasses. You can also use it on mirror too and use a patterned stenci since it is glass.
Have you tried glass etching? What have you made? We'd love to hear your great ideas!
