December 22, 2007

• Holiday Gifting on a Budget

  This year, Mr. Lemon and I tried to hold each other to a $100 gifting limit. As a newly married couple, our pennies are going to the house fund, and we just cleared up the last of any lingering debt, so we’re trying to stay in the black! But honestly… we’re both BIG gifting people… and we couldn’t just send cards this year and feel ok about it. So… Mr. Lemon jumped on my holiday craftnanza wagon… and he approved of this year’s crafty gift: etched champagne glasses!
  

  Each one is etched with a “CHEERS” greeting in either Gaelic (because we’re both a bit Irish) or Japanese (our favorite celebratory food). The glasses were from Crate & Barrel ($3.95 each), so they were quite the steal, and I love the straight edged flute look! I also added a mini bottle of champagne to each package to make the gift a bit more complete! So.. for about $10 each (glasses, mini champagne bottle & shipping box) I think we’re sharing a present that tops a minor gift card.

  This could easily be replicated for your own ideas as a wedding favor or gift, so here are the directions to help you get down with your crafting etching self!

  Materials:  something “glass” to etch, Gocco, gocco screen (70 mesh), etching creme, brush/q-tip, tape

  Step 1:
  
  Print out the design you’d like to etch on your glass & make a carbon copy of it. Burn it into a sheet of 70 mesh screen using your Gocco and cut it out to use as a stencil.

  Step 2:
  
  Attach the stencil to the glass using tape. I used mailing tape, which came off incredibly easy when exposed to water.

  Step 3:
  
  Apply etching creme to the burned areas of your stencil. (I used Miss Cherry Blossom’s hints about using a Q-tip as an applicator, and applied the creme gently to the screen.) Wait 10-15 minutes for the creme to work.

  Step 4:
  
  Run the glass under luke warm water until the stencil is clear. Then remove the stencil and clean the glass with a paper towel.
  
  Also make sure to clean the stencil and remove all etching creme from it. Dry it off and keep it flat by wrapping it in a paper towel and placing it under some heavy books.

  Step 5: The finished product!
  

  Not too shabby for my first gocco etching attempt, don’t you think???

  But I wouldn’t be silly to stop there… so I decided to spiffy up the packaging of the boxes as well…
  
  I packed the boxes with sheds of all of our holiday catalogs and ads, and added a little note that I printed on vellum for each of the packages.

  
  Then I “wrapped” the box in sheets of legal sized paper that I had printed other ways to says CHEERS in many languages. I couldn’t just send it in the plain white box it came in!

  So they’re off to the post office now… and I hope that our friends will like their holiday gift! I usually end up crafting until right before Christmas, so my gifts are usually given between Christmas and NYE. Maybe one year I’ll have enough pre-holiday time to get everything assembled… or not!

  • 4:06 pm
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