glass painting Archives - Tracy Lynn Crafts

After a party at our house a few months ago, the Crown Royal bottle was finished. What a cool-looking bottle, right? I decided it was not going into the recycling. I headed over to Pinterest to see what everyone else was doing with these bottles and came up with a plan for an etched and painted Crown Royal bottle. In the months since that party, the other size bottle has also been emptied and now I can make a matched set of etched and painted Crown Royal bottles. The etching stencils were cut on my Cricut from the vinyl I get for free since they were to be thrown away.

Materials and Supplies

(This post contains affiliate links to one or more of the items I used in this project – which means, if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission. There is no added cost to you!)

Empty Crown Royal Bottle(s)
Vinyl Stencil (See info below)
Glass Etching Compound: Armor Etch
Sponge Brush
Rubbing Alcohol
Paper Towel
Tape
Glass Enamel Paints
Paint Brushes

About Some of the Supplies

Vinyl Stencil: In this project, I assume you have access to a craft machine, such as the Cricut, to cut your own vinyl stencil.

This post does not describe how to cut vinyl on a craft machine. I assume you are familiar with your machine and design software. The .SVG file format seems to be one of the most universally accepted formats. If you have a new Cricut and want to learn how to use it, check out the Love Your Cricut Mini Course at the JenniferMaker site.

Whether it is your own machine or a friend’s machine, I have provided the .SVG files (containing the two sizes) for the fleur-de-lis design used in this etched and painted Crown Royal bottle project. The files are in my Resource Library. Note, you may need to resize the shape after uploading to your design software.

Glass Etching Compound: The only brand I have ever used is Armor Etch. I can find it at my local craft stores and online.

Glass Enamel Paints: The common brands of craft acrylics usually have an “enamel” paint that can be used on glass and ceramic. The ones I used in this project are Folk Art.

About the Design

The design for this project has two sizes to fit both the small and large size Crown Royal bottles. I set up the design with the outline for that flat empty space where the label used to be specifically to help in placement of the vinyl stencil.

I have only tested the design in the Cricut Design Space but all the craft machines indicate they accept .SVG files.

If you are only cutting one size, when you add the file to your project, ungroup the images and delete the size you don’t need.

Etched and Painted Crown Bottles — The Etching Phase

The first part of this project is to etch the fleur-de-lis design into the glass bottles.

Prepare the Glass

Remove the labels from the glass. I do this by soaking in hot water with dish soap overnight. In the morning, the labels peel off. I then use a scrubber to remove any glue residue.

Use rubbing alcohol on the surface where you plan to apply the vinyl stencil. This will remove any oils from handling the glass. You want a good seal of the vinyl against the glass.

Apply the Vinyl Stencil

I made this design to fit exactly into the space on two sizes of Crown Royal bottles. Before you cut the vinyl stencil, check to see if you need to resize the stencil in your design software. The outer edge of the vinyl fits into the space to help with alignment.

Press the vinyl onto the glass and smooth from the center to the outer edges. Use a burnishing tool (or the edge of a credit card) to make a good seal between the vinyl and the glass. Burnish in multiple directions to help get a good seal.

Repeat the application for the other bottle.

Peel off the transfer mask.

You will want to apply masking tape around the edge of the vinyl.

Because of the way I designed it, the fleur-de-lis is close to the edge of the vinyl. You won’t want any of the etching compound to get onto the glass except through the holes of the stencil.

Apply the Etching Compound

I use a cheap foam brush that I have trimmed to fit just inside the opening of the etching compound bottle.

Brush the etching compound onto the stencil covering all the openings of the stencil.

Let it sit for one whole minute — these are the instructions for the Armor Etch brand of etching cream (follow the instructions for whatever product you use). If you go over the minute, that’s okay. I once left some on a different project for five minutes and had no issues. You will need to leave it on for at least one minute. At the end of that minute, rinse off the etching compound under running water.

Reveal the Etching

Peel off the tape then peel off the stencil.

Give it another quick rinse. Once dry, the etching will be more pronounced.

You have completed the first phase of the etched and painted Crown Royal bottle.

You can choose to stop here and enjoy the etched glass or you can move on to the painting part of this project.

Etched and Painted Crown Bottles — The Painting Phase

It is now time to paint the glass bottles.

Glass is a very smooth surface. When you brush the paint onto the glass, you will see brush stokes.

I intend to paint the bottoms of the glass so I need to work on the bottles one side at a time.

To create an opaque look will require multiple coats of paint.

If you want to cover the entire bottle with paint, mask off the etched area and the threads for the bottle cap and use an enamel spray paint. I wanted to accent the points at the top of the design, which meant painting by hand, and multiple coats. I just left the bottles and paint sitting out in my work-space. After painting a coat, I’d clean my brushes then go work on a different project and come back for another coat of paint. Eventually, I got the bottles painted to the degree I wanted.

Accenting the Etched and Painted Crown Royal Bottle

The blue paint is just my base coat. I wanted to highlight some of the designs in the glass by accenting with white and gold paint.

For the diamond shapes molded into the glass, I accented those in white. Instead of using a brush, which would have required multiple coats, I used a squeeze bottle. I have these little squeeze bottles with fine tips for applying gutta onto silk (I’ll write a post on silk painting soon).

Here is a close-up of the white accent paint as applied with the squeeze bottle.

With the gold paint, I added some more accents until I decided they were done.

Setting the Paint

The craft enamels are set if you let them set for somewhere around a month. Or, you can bake them according to your paint manufacturer’s instructions. Set the painted glass on a oven-safe pan and place in a cool oven. Do not keep the plastic bottle caps on the bottles while baking. Do NOT pre-heat the oven. Once in the oven, set the temperature to whatever is recommended by the brand of paint you used. This allows the glass to come up to temperature slowly. Bake for the amount of time indicated by the brand of paint you used. When the time has passed, turn off the oven but do not open the oven door. You want the glass to cool off slowly. I usually do this at night so I can go to bed with the oven cooling down and I’m not tempted to go open the oven door too soon.

Once the glass is cool, remove it from the oven. I usually give it a quick hand-wash and then they are ready to use.

Enjoy Your New Crafting Skills!

By making the etched and painted Crown Royal bottles, you now know how to do two new crafts! You know how to do glass etching and glass painting. Both etching and painting on glass can be applied to other craft projects for home improvement and for gifts. One year for Christmas, I etched the underside of a 9×13 glass pan for each of my daughters. The etching was their first names and could be read as you looked into the pan – which meant the stencils had to be cut in reverse. I have etched designs into the glass of picture frames. I have painted wine glasses and the back side of glass plates.

glass painting