Etched, Er, Painted Cups

Happy Monday. It’s snowing here.

Sometimes projects don’t end up like I thought or hoped they would. This project is one of those.

While surveying Goodwill, I found this carafe and two matching mugs for $4.99. From way back in my brain, I remembered a glass etch project with tiles somewhere along the line and thought I could do something similar with these items.

I used my Cricut machine to cut out a design I liked in vinyl and transferred it the cups and carafe.

I coated them with a layer of glass etch and followed the package directions.

Rinse. Vinyl removal. I was really excited to see the result.

It was there. It was subtle and soft but pretty much invisible from 12 inches away.

This is me trying to get the right angle to see the etching.

Fail.

Maybe it would have worked better on a colored cup rather than white, I don’t know.

On to plan B.

I had a bottle of Pebeo porcelain paint (it was on clearance at Michael’s) and hoped I could improve this busted project.

I watered down the paint so it was more of a wash than a solid paint layer. After giving the cup an even coat of the paint, I started rubbing the paint away with a damp rag. (The paint dries really quickly.) The paint stuck more readily to the etched parts and came away, with some elbow grease, from the smooth areas. It was detailed work but I ended up liking the finish.

Once the cups looked alright, I baked the cups and carafe according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Eh, they’re okay. Not what I envisioned but alright.

They will hold warm drinks on a snowflake-filled April day. Guess that might have to be good enough.

Anyone else have a project that ended up different than what you envisioned? Do you like the outcome anyway?

Take care.