DIY Name Etched Pyrex Pan Gift

It is really annoying to go to someone's house and leave your pan, or drop off a dish for someone and never see your pan again.  Especially if it is one of those glass Pyrex ones.  What a great idea it is to have your name permanently etched into the glass so you will never lose it again!  It's creative and looks much nicer than a piece of tape on the bottom of the pan.  I loved working on this project because it was so easy, quick, inexpensive and made a wonderful gift.  I found the idea on a blog tagged in Pinterest.  Look out friends and families who are ever having a baby, getting married, or are having a house warming party because this is what you are getting!

Supplies:
-Pyrex Pan
-Brush ( I used a $0.25 Foam Brush from Michaels)
 -Armour Etch Cream ( 3oz bottle was $13 at Michaels, use a 50% off coupon!)
-Contact Paper (from the kitchen section of Walmart)
-Exacto Knife (craft section at Walmart)
- Font of your choice/size printed on regular printer paper or use a Cricut machine
- masking tape
-cutting board or other hard surface to cut on
-sticky vinyl stencils (found in the craft paint section at Walmart)

 Directions:

1.  Choose a font that will be easy to cut out.  The more square the letters, the easier it is. The larger the print, the easier to cut it out.  Print onto regular printer paper.  You can also use one of those fancy Cricut machines but I'm guessing if you have one and know how to use one, you probably don't need this tutorial. 

2.  Cut out a piece of contact paper at least 1" larger all the way around the words and tape the font page underneath the contact paper (do not remove the backing on the contact paper yet) to your cutting board.  I have a basic tile kitchen table so I just taped it to that. 

3.  Using the exacto knife, trace and cut the letters out of the contact paper.  Save the cut outs so that you can use the centers of the A's and e's etc later. When you are finished, you can throw away the printer paper with the font on it, you don't need it anymore.

4.  Pull the backing off the contact paper and stick it to the outside of the Pyrex pan where you want the letters to be.  Fill in the center of the letters such as O's A's e's etc with the pieces from the letters you cut out earlier.  Make sure to check that all the edges around the letters are properly adhered to the glass, you do not want etch cream to get underneath the contact paper because once the cream etches, its permanent.

5.  Follow the instructions on the bottle of the etch cream*  Using the foam brush, paint the parts of the contact paper where you cut out the letters.  You want to use a generous amount to fully cover the letters.  If you don't use enough, the cream will only etch some parts of the letters (which you can go back later with a small paintbrush and paint in if this happens, ) and if you use too much it will drip (I have done this also and there is no fixing this if it drips down onto the glass.  If it drips and you catch it immediately, you can wipe it off, but if it sits for any amount of time, it will start to etch the glass).  I found that I needed to leave the cream on for at least 10-12 minutes in order for everything to fully etch (which is double the manufacturer's recommended time).

*Note- The bottle I had said to leave the cream on for 5 minutes and to use their stencils.  I made my own stencil using contact paper and left it on for 10 minutes.

When done, use your fingers and water to rinse off the etching cream, pull off the contact paper and clean all the etch cream off.  Dry off completely and check for any place that needs touched up. Use a small paintbrush to apply etch cream to touch up areas and leave on for another 10 minutes.

This photo shows the vinyl stencil that I used on the opposite side of the name.  I gave it as a house warming gift at a party where it was requested to bring a dish.  I baked buffalo chicken dip in it and left it for the homeowner to find later when they cleaned up.  You can also leave a recipe instead of baking something in it, or fill it with kitchen utensils.