Crafting with Karlie: Glass Cannisters

Like most of the female population with access to the internet in the U.S., I’ve become hooked on Pinterest.

Mostly I’ve been pinning pictures of elements I’d like to add to the Little Red House, or the code-named “Perfect House” that Rich and I want to build on some raw land 5-10 years down the road.

But mostly, Pinterest is crafters’ heaven. I’ve been immune to a lot of it, but then in strolled these little gems:

Source: Martha Stewart via Karlie on Pinterest

I love-love-love glass cannisters.  I’d been holding off on buying any yet, but when I saw this cute idea I had to do it. We shopped around at IKEA and Target, but decided on a set of various sizes from Walmart (they have the best prices and styles I’ve found). I also picked a much larger non-sealing jar for DIY laundry detergent that I’ve been planning on making.

I picked up some scrap-booking letter stickers at Michael’s, and I figured I would create the outline/some other designs from painter’s tape.

While at Michael’s, I also picked up some etching cream, but beware, the stuff is EXPENSIVE. The smaller bottle we saw was $26 dollars, almost as much as we paid for all the canisters combined. Rich eyed a little bottle in a slightly beat up paper package for $13, so we decided to give that a go.

Then, I let all my supplies sit around for about a week (it’s important to age your crafts)… and then I gave it a go. First, I put the stickers on. I thought they’d be a more bold than they turned out, but they’re not terrible.

Then, I outlined the design with blue painter’s tape. For the laundry canister I cut out some little shapes (a dress, a t-shirt, some pants) to etch in as well. Then, I applied a thick coat of the Glass Etch with a paintbrush and waited for it to do its thing. It washed off very easily, and the water took the stickers & tape along with it. Alas, I was left with this:

Nailed it? More like craft failure. Apparently, it wasn’t left on long enough. And, there’s no easy way to re-do it.

I kept going working through the other canisters. It eventually got a little better. On the flour canister you can see what I was going for: a nice, subtle accent to the glass.

The hope on the horizon is that there is still quite a bit of Glass Etch leftover. I may be able to salvage the laundry jar yet!