You are going to need:

A glass casserole dish (Do not use Pyrex if you are using an etching cream)

An etching cream

Gloves

Popsicle Stick

An adhesive stencil material (I used a shelf liner from the local dollar store)

Transfer Tape

A Beginners Guide to Etching a Glass Casserole Dish

Etching a glass dish is a great gift for any holiday! We all have that one person who is impossible to shop for. Well maybe you don’t have to shop at all. If they have a glass casserole dish on hand you can do custom glass etching for them. It’s a win, win! It is also very simple if you have the right tools!

See the full video tutorial at the bottom of this page!

Let’s Get Started!

To start you are going to need a design to etch onto the casserole dish. The design I used is one that made. I have made it available to you at https://www.craftyoils.com/product/blank-vintage-sign/

Figure 1 Blank Vintage Sign Download from CraftyOils.com

You just add it to your shopping cart and go through the checkout process. After you have completed your order you will be sent an automatic email from Crafty Oils it will look like the one below. If you do not receive the email within a few minutes check your SPAM or PROMOTION email folders. If you still did not get your download fill out the contact form on www.craftyoils.com and let me know that you did not get your download. I will send it out to you ASAP. If you do purchase this download, I want to personally thank you for supporting my family in this way. Thank you!

Figure 2 Download Email with Order Details

To access your download, you will need to click on the link under the word “Download” in the email sent to you. It will either download it to your device or open the folder on your display. You will need to move the download from the zip folder that it was sent in, most programs can not access a file inside a zip folder. To edit the design open your program editor and open the SVG download and then add your text edits before you send it over to your cutting machine.

One Step I always seem to forget is to mirror the image before you cut!

Figure 3 Mirror Image before you cut

The Font I used was – ALGERIAN

The material I used was an adhesive self-liner I got from my local dollar store

The cut settings I used are shown below. Blade 1, Speed 1, Force 10, Material Matte Vinyl.

Figure 4 These are the cut settings I used

Whenever you are cutting a new material you always want to do a “TEST CUT” to make sure that everything cuts right.

After you get your design cut out you will want to weed out all the pieces that you want to have etched. What I LOVE about this design is that it gives you FOUR variations of the design to etch. Can you find all FOUR?

Figure 5 Weed out the unneeded vinyl pieces

Once you get your design weeded. You will need to apply a transfer tape over top. This will help you move your design over to your casserole dish. For this project I like to use a Medium-Lite transfer tape, but I have also used Contact Paper in the past. I like using a Medium-Lite transfer tape because when it comes time to remove it, it does not pull up the vinyl that is attached to glass. Contact Paper is what I call a heavy-duty transfer tape and will cause you some trouble when removing it. If this is all you have on hand it can be done, just take your time.

After you apply the transfer tape you can remove the backing. If you are using the medium-lite tape you will need to rub and remove the backing careful not to leave pieces of the design still attached to the backing paper. If you are using the contact paper, the back should be able to be pulled off very easily.

Now it is time to put the vinyl on the clean casserole dish. I recently found out that just placing the casserole dish right on top of the vinyl works well. In the past I would slowly apply the vinyl to the bottom starting at one end and working my way across. Both ways work.

Figure 6 Apply Vinyl to Bottom of Casserole Dish

Now that your vinyl is on the bottom of the casserole dish you will need to rub all around and remove all the bubbles. You want to get good contact between the vinyl and the glass so that you don’t accidently etch things that you don’t want etched. Then carefully remove the transfer tape. This is where the medium-lite tape comes in handy. Simply pull up one end slowly remove it. Once you get the tape off you can save it for the next time you need transfer something.

Congratulations your casserole dish is ready to be etched. I have used two methods to etch my glass dishes. 1) A Glass Etching Cream 2) A Sand Blaster. Both are good choices.

Method 1 – Etching Cream

I use Armour Etch Glass Etching Cream, I think it works great! It does say that it does not work on some Pyrex.

Figure 7 I used Armor Etch Glass Etching Cream

When I use the etching cream, I use a popsicle stick to apply it the glass. I also where gloves and work in a well-ventilated area. I put it on thick. Try to get etching cream on all the glass you want to have etched. Careful when move the cream around not to cause the vinyl to move or form bubbles.

Figure 8 Apply Cream heavily to areas you want to etch

The instructions on the etching cream say to let it sit for 15 minutes. I followed the instructions the first time and I did not think the etch was bright enough. So, the next one I did I left it on for a few hours, till the cream was dry. I was worried about something bad happing, but nothing bad happened. The etch may have been a little brighter, but if it was it was hard to see the difference.

Once you have let the cream sit on the glass you will want to rise of the cream in the sink and remove the vinyl. I suggest waring gloves for this.

Figure 9 Rinse off the etching cream in the sink

After you wash it, dry it and you are DONE!

Figure 10 Finished etched dish

Method 2 – Sand Blaster

I think that if you have access to a sand blaster you etch all your glass using it! After you get your vinyl onto the dish and remove the transfer tape, you need to cover/wrap your dish in something. I used a heavy duty paper. You need to cover it so that the only glass not covered will be the glass that gets etched.

Figure 11 Cover glass dish so that only the glass to be etched is visible

I use an extra fine grit in my sand blaster. I think it does a great job! I did encounter one problem, the grit started to chew away at the vinyl and started to etch areas I did not want etched. I caught it in time, and it is almost unnoticeable.

Figure 12 Careful not to over blast your glass dish with the sand blaster

Where the vinyl started to get eaten up by the etching sand was right where the casserole dish has its embossed words. This may be something you want to be aware of when you are applying the vinyl design to your dish. But like I said up above the result is amazing and you can barely tell that there was a problem.

Figure 13 Finished Sand Blasted casserole dish

And here they are side by side!

Figure 14 Glass Dish on the left was etched using the sand blaster, Casserole dish on the right was etched using the etching cream

Hope you found this tutorial helpful. I love seeing your finished projected. Go ahead and posted down below remember to

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