Etching & Stuff

Do you have a friend that makes you happy whenever you talk to them even if it's 10 times a day or twice a year? Do you have a friend that makes you want to be a little bit better because she has so many qualities that you admire? Do you have a friend that would do anything for you so you have to be careful not to take advantage of her kindness? Do you have a friend you can rely on for anything?

I do. I'm blessed to have many friends like that.

I have 6 friends from college like that. I would love to live on a cul-de-sac with all of us. We could have our own reality-show I think! (You know 2 of them because they post here...and the other 4 are just as fun).

I'm also blessed to have friends like that in my life now! With my job, my three kids, my church responsibilities, I couldn't do it without them.

Why am I talking about this? Because I did today's "idea" with one of these friends....my dear friend Allison. She's one of those friends!!! And we have fun together...so this weekend we got together to make a present for her neighbor.  It was her neighbors' 50 Wedding Anniversary. 50 Years!!! WOW!! So we decided to make a little wall hanging for her friends Floyd and Nancy.  This is what we made:

This is how we made it:

We bought a frame, some etching paste (see picture), some hanger things (because we take off the back of the frame). We also needed some hot glue and we had cut-outs in vinyl.

We had the 50 cut out backwards so we could apply the etching to the back of the glass and put the vinyl on the front of the glass.  In real life...it gives it a little bit of depth and makes it look cool.

So, apply the vinyl to the glass.

Then apply the etching cream LIBERALLY to the glass. Don't worry...it won't eat through the vinyl. But make sure its on there pretty thick and pretty uniform.

The instructions on the bottle says wait a minute, but that didn't seem to work too well, so we waited about 5 minutes...actually we were chatting, so we really don't know how long it sat there.

Then we rinsed it off and pulled off the vinyl. BE CAREFUL when pulling off the vinyl.  Allison cut herself :(

Isn't it cute? Now to apply the name!

So, before replacing the glass into the frame, we added the little hangy thing (see blue arrow)...you will need a hammer for that. Then we placed the glass in the frame and took our glue gun and basically caulked it into the frame (see the yellow arrow).

One thing I've done before is place two of those hangy things in each corner and then run ribbon through and tie at the top so it can be a hanging frame. But we did it this way and it looked cute.

Of course you can do this with make things like:

Friends in vinyl and Sisters Etched

Name of family or couple in vinyl and year married Etched

Name of daughter in vinyl and Princess Etched

Name of mission in vinyl and Called to Serve Etched (for those Mormons out there)

It turned out cute even though at the same time we were certifying for cub scouts, entertaining children, chatting about life and having a great time. I love spending time with my friends (that includes my husband....here's to 39 more years till we make 50 honey)!

Happy Anniversary Floyd and Nancy!

And don't forget to take some time to hang out with friends, especially those one's you can't live without. And if you craft....post it on our facebook page. We'd love to see what you come up with!

Today I linked up to:

Sew Much Ado
The Thrifty Home 
Someday Crafts 
Blue Cricket Design 
The Trendy Treehouse 
Lucky Star Lane 
Hope Studios 
Suzy's Artsy-Craftsy Sitcom
Paisley Passion