Etching Drama

Why is it that we procrastinate? Does everyone do it habitually, or are there really people in this world who always plan ahead and get stuff done long before a deadline? I waited until the very last minute to make my Mother's Day gift for my mother-in-law, with almost disastrous results. She has wanted to redecorate her master bathroom for a while now, so I found some super cute and inexpensive apothecary-type jars to etch for her. You know, the kind you can fill with q-tips and cotton balls, that look so lovely and spa-like sitting on your vanity? Here is a picture of one of them:



Well, as I said, I waited until last minute (the day before Mother's Day) to etch the jars. A helpful friend offered to assist me since she has vastly more etching experience than I. After three hours of picking out beautiful, intricate designs to etch onto each one, we painstakingly applied the vinyl templates and I globbed on the etching cream. Keep in mind that we started around 8 p.m. It looked like this:



The directions state that you should wait 5 minutes and then wash off the etching cream and "voila!" you have gorgeous, expensive-looking glass. I washed off the etching cream with great expectations. Nothing happened. It didn't work. I was devastated! This was a first! Apparently, not all glass etches. I knew that some pyrex wouldn't work, but these were basic jars, just plain old glass! By that time, three and a half hours had gone by and I had nothing to show for my creativity! Thankfully, my friend and I had a stroke of genius and decided to cut the designs out of vinyl using a Cricut Expression and ended up with these beautiful results:



By 11:30 p.m., I was exhausted and ready to get the whole thing over with. I didn't actually finish them until the day after Mother's Day (more of that darned procrastination). We gave her another gift for Mother's Day, so this will be a belated gift. Now I just hope she really likes them! And here's a picture of the card I made for her. My mom got an identical card as well.