Inexpensive Groomsmen Gift

For those of you who don't already know, my sister-in-law is engaged and the wedding is set for June 25, 2011. I'm so happy for her, and couldn't be more excited-weddings are "right up my alley".

Every bride has a budget and sometimes it can be hard to stay within said budget. I'm here to help with that problem whenever possible...

What Groomsmen doesn't like a good beer mug with his name on? The one pictured above was only $2.50 to make. OR The bride and groom could have ordered them online for about $10-15 each plus s & h. Let's save some money, shall we?

Here's what you'll need:

Beer Mugs from the Dollar Tree-these are nice and heavy and no one will be the wiser

Glass Etching Cream-the small container will do, it doesn't take much

Paint brush to apply cream

Stickers and Masking tape to make design on mugs

Rubber Gloves

Newspaper to protect work surface

Do a couple of tests on a jar from the recycling bin before moving on to the real thing. We used a spaghetti jar. For the design we used some old stickers and masking tape.

Once you're happy with the results from your test runs, place the stickers on your mug. We used the negative part of the stickers so that the etched part would be the letters. Press the stickers down good and tight so that no cream will seep underneath.

Using the paint brush, dab a bit of etching cream on the glass. Be careful to only put the cream where you want the glass to be etched. We decided that dabbing it on instead of brushing it on gave us the end result we wanted. When it was brushed you could see the strokes.

The etching cream said to wait 5 minutes before rinsing it off with water. We waited 10 minutes because it left a more even etch. This was something we figured out in our test runs, results may vary so make sure you do the tests.

While I was rinsing off the glass in running water it helped to rub it a bit. (Make sure you're wearing the rubber gloves or you could etch your fingers as well.) I also had hot soapy water in the opposite sink basin to help soak off the stickers after the etching cream was rinsed away. 

Here's how they turned out:

I think the guys are going to enjoy them. My sister-in-law and I had so much fun doing this that I think we will be getting together to do vases, frames, cups... everything and anything glass.
Also, she called me this morning and said that the groom is jealous that he didn't have one too.