Glass. I purchased these drinking glasses from the local Dollar Tree.

Latex gloves. This is a very important for safety! Really! But I didn’t use them. Just don’t get the etching cream on your skin.

Armour Etching Cream. You can get this at your local craft store.

Paint brush. I used an old one I had lying around.

Rub n’ Buff (silver or gold). You can get also this at most craft stores.

Stencils. I used professionally cut vinyl stencils from decalsNdecor, but you can make your own.

Instructions

1. Make the stencil

You can either make your own stencils with contact paper and a knife, or you can make them with a vinyl cutter.

I don’t have a vinyl cutter. But after make a few stencils by hand, I wanted a machine to make them. I ordered my stencils from decalsNdecor, which did a great job.

However, I sent decalsNdecor bad instructions. I thought the sides of my glasses were parallel, but the mouth is slightly wider than the bottom,. This made it so I couldn’t just wrap the stencil around the glass. In order to get the stenci. to correctly wrap around the glass, I had to make vertical cuts. This allowed the lower parts of the stencil to overlap.

I had to cut the stencil so it would wrap around the glass

2. Apply the stencil

If you are using a vinyl stencil like me, then there there is paper on both sides, but it is pretty obvious which one to peal off first.

When the protective piece of paper still on the stencil, rub all around it to get the bubbles out.

Then peel the remaining paper off.

Ta-da! You’re ready to etch!

3. Apply Armor Etching Cream

Now it’s time to put on the rubber gloves, whip out a paintbrush, and lather etching cream everywhere you want etched. But be careful where you lather… etching is permanent.

I used a paint brush to apply the etching cream. Instead of brushing it on, I dabbed. That made it easier to apply a thick coat.

Stay away from the edges of your stencil. You don’t want to get etching cream on any other part of the glass. You can use tape to mask the rest of your glass if you want.

This was too close! I wiped off that drip with a paper towel.

4. Wait

When you’re done applying the etching cream, then it’s time to wait.

All done!

The bottle says to wait 1–2 minutes. A video I watched said 15 minutes. The episode of Avatar: The Legend of Korra I watched while waiting was about half an hour.

I have done other etchings where I waited only one minute in the past, but the longer wait on this project made the etching more consistent.

5. Clean & remove the stencil

Etching cream is reusable, so get a much back in the bottle as you can.

Rinse the rest off in the sink with cold water.If you let the etching cream sit for a while (like I did), it will be dry and a little more difficult to remove (but not much).

Then remove the stencil, and wash again. Sometimes a little bit of etching cream gets stuck in a corner of the stencil and doesn’t wash off. When you remove the stencil it can spread. I have ruined a few etchings by not washing immediately after removing the stencil.

Some parts of the stencil might stick (such as the space invader’s eyes), but I was able to get the off with the craft knife or my finger nail.

6. Rub

At this point it’s the glass is looking mighty nice. For most etched glass projects, it would be finished.

However, I wanted more. I bought some Cthulhu shot glasses from Carter over at The Zombie Nation that look awesome. He used Rub n’ Buff to make the etching really stand out. I wanted the same effect on my glasses.

The one on the left with Rub n’ Buff stands out

There is one downside to Rub n’ Buff: it comes off in the dishwasher. The etching doesn’t, that’s forever. But if you use Rub n’ Buff then you need to hand wash your glasses.

I used silver Rub n’ Buff, but there are other colors (but everyone I talked to recommended silver, and said to stay away from the black). One thing I discovered is that the first bit of Rub n’ Buff to come out of the tube was watery and didn’t stick very well. I had to do that first glass over again. Make sure your Rub n’ Buff is nice and thick.

I probably should have used the gloves again, but decided to get my hands dirty. I didn’t want the Rub n’ Buff to dry because it makes it hard to clean off the excess, so I rubbed the Rub n’ Buff into half of my etchings at a time.

7. Buff

Immediately wipe off the Rub n’ Buff with a dry paper towel. The paper towel will remove it from the smooth glass, leaving Rub n’ Buff on the etching. It will take a few passes to get it all off, and some parts might be easier to scrape it off.

8. Admire

All done! I hope this was useful. Let me know if you have any questions, or tips on what I could have done different.