Another Project

Ok, I'll say it. I'm crafty.

I'm happiest when I'm up to my elbows in a project.

I LOVE personalized details that make a party look like a million bucks. For our wedding, I embroidered our married monogram on 100 linen napkins. Each guest had their name at the top of their menu. There were tons of little details that I obsessed about-- and they were my favorite part of our wedding design.

I volunteered to host my cousin's baby shower in April and I have gone a bit crazy scouring the internet looking at pictures of other people's showers to get ideas and inspiration. (Well, I'll be doing the planning and decorating, my mom will hold the party at her house & I'm sure my aunts will all pitch in just as they did for my fabulous shower last summer.) The wheels are already turning regarding all of the little details I want to put into it and since my time is so limited, I want to get started early (aka now).

A few days ago I stumbled on a tutorial for making these:

& I thought they'd be adorable to drink out of with a really cute paper straw, like these:

So, I gathered some supplies to give it a try:

A Starbucks Frappuccino (drink or dump coffee, peel labels off and scrub)
Rubber Gloves
Glass Etching Cream
A Paintbrush
A template
Stickers

Instead of using paper and adhesive like the tutorial suggests, I made my template out of contact paper so that it would stick. It worked perfectly!

I cut a circle out of the contact paper and stuck the remaining square to the bottle. Then I put a sticker in the middle. I dipped the paintbrush in the etching cream and covered the area, then let it sit for half an hour before rinsing it off.

So, my first attempt didn't come out as clean as I wanted- I wasn't careful enough when I pressed the template to the glass so you can see some spots where the cream snuck underneath the template and created an imperfect circle.

However, my second attempt was much better! (I did it on the back of the same bottle for practice.) The circle came out perfectly and the "b" was nice and clean. I probably could have left the etching cream on a few more minutes, but I wasn't paying close attention to the time in between nursing, naps & diaper changes.

I love how easy these were and what a sweet touch they'll be at the shower when they are done with a scalloped edge circle with a little "m" on them! The mama-to-be's name is Mary Allison (she goes by Memo, which we pronounce Mee-mo) and the sweet baby girl scheduled to debut in May will be named Susie Amelia, but she'll go by Millie. That's a lot of m's!

I was also thinking that I might use these as a decoration at the party-- perhaps I'll spell out m-i-l-l-i-e with the bottles across the mantle, using them as vases for gerber daisies? Ahhh, the possibilities are endless.

Now I have the task of collecting enough frappuccino bottles for each person at the party plus extra and unfortunately, they're not my favorite. Luckily, my mom likes them, so I just have to convince her to drink them more often. Also, our newborn photographer offers them to her clients, so she's agreed to hold on to them for me. I think I'll need about 35 bottles by the end of March, so if anyone drinks these regularly let me know! (I think that you could probably squeeze enough of these bottles into a flat rate shipping box to make it worthwhile.)

I'll definitely post more pics of projects as I work on them!