Etching a frame

One of the kids who used to be in our youth group was getting married a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to make a special personalized gift for them.  I love to make something personal for gifts.  So I decided to etch a frame for them.  I have made several, but wanted to do a tutorial so you can try it too. 

First you gather your supplies.  You need a frame, vinyl, material, Armour Etch, transfer tape, and a paintbrush. 

Then you need to cut out your letters.  I used my cricut.  Any cut vinyl would work, you can use a Silhouette, or even cut it by hand. 

You want to save the negative space.  I used some extra burn orange vinyl, but you can use any color.  It is just going to be thrown away.  Then you use transfer tape to move it on to the glass. 

The transfer tape keeps all the letters in the shape they are intended to be in.  Once you remove the tape you are ready to brush on the etching cream. 

You need a pretty thick coat.  When you get all the blank spots covered you want to let it sit for about 15 minutes. 

Now you are ready to rinse.  I usually try to have a pretty high powered stream of water and then I just rub of any remaining etching cream.  You want to be sure to continually rinse so the cream doesn't accidentally etch a place you didn't intend. 

Now you can remove the vinyl.  As you can tell the letters etched rather nicely.  I usually go ahead and clean the glass with Windex at this point. 

Then I chose the font to cut their names and date with.  I then added the fabric to the back of the frame. 

I just trimmed it to fit and used a very light layer of Mod Podge to keep it in place.   Then you just put it all together.  I used transfer tape once again to put their names on the frame.  I think it turned out great.  I hope they love it too. 

Sorry the picture isnt' better.  It is pretty hard to take a picture of etching. 

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