Thrift Flip | DIY Custom Etched Baking Dish
In my wildest dreams I am an incredible homemaker. I cook beautiful dinners every night. I keep a clean home. I put little notes in my kids' lunchboxes. In reality, I am obsessed with Doordash, a bit of a mess, and don't actually have kids (still growing the first one). I'm not saying this to sell myself short. I do other things. But in my wildest dreams, I do it all. In my wildest dreams I'm the neighbor who brings you a casserole in a beautiful dish (even though I've eaten maybe five casseroles in my whole life and have made just one). In my wildest dreams, one of my problems is that my darn casserole dishes never make it back to me, because those neighbors forget to bring them back and slowly let them integrate into their own collections.
Basically this DIY project is a solution to a problem I don't actually have, but would like to have one day. I will say, I do make a really good Mac n Cheese (thanks to a family recipe), that I could see myself leaving at friends' houses over the holidays, so my dreams may be coming true in a few months. I recently thrifted what is going to be the perfect Mac n Cheese baking dish, and decided I'd spruce it up a bit and live out a small piece of my wildest dreams by making it into a custom baking dish. I also think this upcycle ups my chances of getting my dish back if we do end up leaving it somewhere. So here's to my perfect Mac and Cheese dish always comes back to me (and my wildest dreams come true):
Supplies:
Glass Etching Cream (I used Armour Etch)
Foam brush or paint brush
Letter stickers or stencils
Thrifted Glassware
Scissors
Be sure to read the instructions on the etching cream closely, and DO NOT touch it. It eats through glass, so please avoid letting it touch your skin, and IMMEDIATELY wash it off thoroughly if it does.
Directions:
1. Cut out each letter you'll need to spell your name or phrase like so. Keep in mind that rather than sticking the letters themselves to the dish, we'll be sticking the outlines to the dish as seen in step 2!
2. Remove the letter stickers from each of the cutouts. This will leave you with a stick on stencil for each letter.
3. Arrange the stencils on the dish. I messed this bit up a little, and ended up with a somewhat crooked name, but I love it nonetheless. Be sure you add in any pieces left on the sticker sheet that would complete the letters. For example, the "o" and the "k" I used, had negative space where this cursive font formed a loop. I needed to add the little bit of sticker left over onto the dish to create that negative space.
4. Use your brush to add a thick coat of the etching cream over the open spaces. I ended up using a paintbrush, because my letters were so small, but a foam dabber might be better for larger stencils.
5. Let the etching cream sit for about five minutes.
6. Wash the etching cream off with water being sure ALL of the cream is removed before touching the dish. You can wipe it dry with a paper towel.
And that's it! I had to go back in to touch up some areas with etching cream, and again, it came out a wee bit crooked. But ultimately I love it! I'm excited to proudly present my Mac n Cheese in this thing, and even happier to be sure to get it back if we end up leaving leftovers with someone. This etching cream is one of my favorite ways to repurpose and personalize thrifted glassware. I've used it to make quite a few personalized gifts in the the past, It's just an easy way to make something simple into something custom. Give it a shot, and let me know how it goes!