DIY Fathers Day gift -$6

My post yesterday (read it here) was Walter's gift to That Guy for Fathers Day.  Wouldn't it be easy if that were all the gift ideas I had to think up for the occasion? But, alas gentle readers, such is not the case.

This post is my Fathers Day gift to That Guy.  He really is a great dad and I want to celebrate that.

That Guy is very supportive of this frugal living ride I have been taking us on. But at the end of the day most of his interests lie in commercial things.  Like comic books. He still loves to stop by the comic book store on his way home from work once a month and pick up the latest installment of his favorite super hero. Who is, by the way, Green Lantern.
I try my best to tie his interest into things I can DIY when gifting for him.  At Christmas time I made him a pair of PJ pants with the Green Lantern logo on the leg. And now, today, with this Fathers Day gift.

This is not just a gift for the sake of a gift.  Back when we moved into this house six months ago many things got lost or broken in transition as frequently happens. Most of the broken items happened to be our drinking glasses.  We have made due for the past six months with four drinking glasses. Since the kids are both young enough for plastic cups we can get by day to day just fine.  But once we have any guests over it becomes tricky.

So I thought I would buy That Guy a set of glasses (okay they are beer glasses- it is Fathers Day after all, and my apple juice will taste the same from a beer glass) and glass etch the Green Lantern logo into them.

Here is how I did it:
You will need
- a set of glasses ($6)
- scrap pieces of self adhesive vinyl (on hand)
- foam brush (on hand)
- glass etching cream (on hand from a project years ago)
- a print out of the logo (or what ever else it is you choose to etch)
- scissors
-pen
-ready access to a sink/water

supplies

First I printed off the logo from this website. In an ideal world I would have used my Cricut machine to do this cutting, but I do not have a Green Lantern cartridge.  So the next thing I had to do was trace my logo onto a scrap of vinyl.

Green Lantern logo

Then using my scissors I very carefully cut out the logo so I was left with the negative image.

Next I peeled the paper backing off the vinyl and stuck it to the glass. Be careful to make sure all edges around the logo are firmly down so the cream does not seep under.

negative image on the glass

I opened my rather ancient bottle of glass etching cream and generously applied it to the glass with a foam brush.  The bottle says to leave the cream on for one minute.  I decided to go with five minutes because my cream was so old.

Etching cream applied

When the time was up I rinsed the glass under running water using a paper towel to help get all the cream off.

Then I just peeled off the vinyl and Volia!

Finished product.

Continue until all glasses have been etched.

Not too shabby for $6! Happy Thursday, gentle readers.