Itching to etch - Stampendous playing with Armour

Hello Friends!
Oh what a fun week this is going to be! During these next few days all Stampendous gals will be playing with Stampendous stamps and Armour Etch Glass cream to create some really funky home decor items.

Yes, I know. When I first heard about this product team up I thought I was really going to struggle with ideas and that it was going to be super hard.

How wrong was I?! Glass etching is not at all difficult. OK, it might  take a bit of practice to get the perfect results. But who says that crafting has to be perfect? I believe crafting should be fun :) and today I hope to show you how fun it is to use your stamps to create truly unique glass designs.

For my today's project I decided to upcycle some juice bottles as additional storage for my embellishments. I already have an assortment of little jars with yellow, red and blue tinted tops so I decided to try to tint my bottles to match the rest of my 'glassware' collection.

OK, here we go. First you will need: clean glass bottles, Beacon's Fast Finish medium, selection of inks, some old containers/tins (one for each colour) and paper towels.

Mix a small amount of Fast Finish with your inks/mists in the container.

Pour your mixture into the bottle.

Put the bottle cap back on, ensuring to screw it on tightly. Gently swirl the ink inside the bottle covering the entire surface. Pour the excess ink back into you mixing container. 

Next, stand the bottle up side down onto the paper towel. Allow about 30 mins for the ink to run down and repeat the swirling part if you want the colour to be more intense.

Tint the remaining bottles the same way. Leave to dry overnight (NB. some tutorials advise to bake your glassware to heat set the colour medium. I am not intending to use these as fresh flowers vases so I skipped this step).

I also used a clear plastic tray for my mixing and drying to protect my work area.

Now, the really exciting part!

Swipe your bottle with antistatic embossing buddy. Ink up your stamp with embossing ink (any colour). Stamp onto the bottle and heat emboss with embossing powder (any colour). The stamping will become your mask.

I used the ornate frame from the Perfectly Clear Chandelier set), Vintage Lowercase alphas and Black Detail  embossing powder.

Next cut a stencil with a Nestabilities die from a contact paper. Adhere to the bottle and secure the edges with masking tape to protect the areas you don't want to etch. 

I didn't have contact paper so I used a thin acetate with repositional adhesive instead. Not ideal as the etching cream can seep underneath the stencil if it's not secured enough. This is where we get to the part where ART does not have to be perfect :).

Next cover the area to be etched with a generous amount of Armour Etch cream. Make sure to wear protective gloves as the cream is highly corrosive. Ideally you want to do this step in a well ventilated area with an easy access to a sink. Leave the cream on for at least 2 minutes (I left mine for 5 mins).

When the time is up, take your bottles to the sink and rinse the cream off thoroughly. You will also see that the embossing will start to peel off - just rub it all off gently. Dry your glass thoroughly and here's the final result:

Be sure to stop by Stampendous blog to see what other creative uses for the Stampendous stamps and Armour Etch cream the girls have come up with. I can't wait to see them myself! Oh and don't forget to leave comments - the more the merrier - because as always there are fabulous prizes to be won. The winners need to have a US mailing address so make sure to let us know if you have one, in case it's not obvious from your blog profile :).

And here are some helpful links for you.

Playing on Monday:
Kristine Reynolds

Playing on Tuesday:
Stampendous blog
Asia King (that's me!)
Janelle Stollfus
Etch Talk

Playing on Wednesday:
Stampendous blog
Cyndi Bundy
Lea Kimmel
Tobi Crawford
Etch Talk

Playing on Thursday:
Stampendous blog
Rhea Weigand
Etch Talk

Friday - please come back here for the big fabby blog hop!

Thank you so much for stopping by today and I would love to hear what you think of my first attempt to glass etching :)

Big hugs