Personalized Dinner Plates

Hello, all! Recently, I've been shopping around online, looking for some things that are monogrammed with a 'C' on them. I've only been married for three months, so I'm still slightly obsessed with my new last name. Actually, I've yet to legally change my name, but I'm going to! And then, I'll be slightly obsessed with it some more! I had been looking for some dishes for everyday use in our house as of late. I have a very nice set of Fiesta plates, bowls, and mugs, but I don't want to us them so much when its just Josh and I eating dinner. We're both a little accident prone, and I'd like to keep nice dinnerware for later use. I wanted some cute dishes that wouldn't be expensive, and would coordinate well with my Fiesta stuff, which happens to be quite bright.

Anyway, I did a little researching, and found these plates on http://www.zazzle.com/.

I really liked the idea of monogrammed plates, but I didn't really like diamond design. I really didn't like the $29.95 price per plate, either. We're on a budget in this household! I wanted at least four plates, and I could definitely use the $120 that they would cost for something much  more worthwhile. So, my crafty brain started scheming, and I said, "I bet that I could monogram some plates myself!" So, I broke out the etching cream and paint brush, and this is what I came up with!

Please excuse the pictures. And the incredible mess on my kitchen table. It was board game night when I etched this plate, so there are pizza boxes and, well, board games everywhere. Anyway, I love my new plates! They're so cute, and I only paid $1.50 a piece for them, since I already had the etching cream. You can do this too! It was super easy, and ended up being just what I wanted. Without further ado, here is a tutorial!

Personalized Dinner Plates

You need:

Rubber gloves

Glass plates (or anything glass that you'd like to etch)

A paint brush

A stencil of what you'd like to etch (It needs to be sticky on one side. Vinyl, or contact paper works well)

Etching cream

Craft knife (Exacto knives work the best for this)

Directions:

1. The very first thing you need to do is remove all stickers from the back of your plates. Make sure that they are clean, and dry.

2. Time to cut out your pattern! I used my cricut to cut out my stencil for me. It worked out well for me, because a 'C' doesn't need to be flipped like other letters do. Keep in mind that you will be etching on the bottom of your plate. You don't want your letter to be backwards after etching. If your letter needs to be flipped, or if you don't have a machine to cut your stencil out for you, first print off your letter, making sure to reverse it before printing. Then, place your printed letter on top of the vinyl or contact paper (on the paper-backed side). Using the exacto knife, cut out your stencil.

3. Transfer your stencil to the back of your plate. You can either do this by hand, which can be a little difficult, or with the aid of transfer tape, or another piece of contact paper. I usually just use the contact paper, since transfer tape is rather expensive. Simply peel and stick a piece of contact paper over the non-sticky side of the stencil, then peel the backing of the stencil, and transfer it to your plate. Make sure that you push down all of the edges very well. You don't want etching cream to leak under the stencil, and etch places you didn't want etched!



I used clear contact paper to transfer my stencil to the plate. You can barely see it in this picture.





Here, I placed the stencil onto the plate, then carefully peeled away the contact paper.







Here is what the stencil looks like from the other side of the plate.

4. Its time to put on your rubber gloves! Seriously, do NOT touch etching cream with your bare hands. I use Armour etch, which can be found in lots of craft stores, including Hobby Lobby, which is where I got mine. Etching cream can be a little expensive. The bottle that I got was about $7, but after I get done using it, I just scrape the excess back into the bottle and use it again. I've etched a bowl, a jar, and four plates, and I've still got at least two-thirds of a bottle left. Here's a picture, so you know what to look for!

5. Apply a generous amount of etching cream over your stencil. When I say generous, I mean it. The first time I tried to etch something, I didn't use enough etching cream. Needless to say, I threw that cookie jar away. 

6. The directions on the etching cream bottle say to leave the cream on for five minutes or so. I always leave mine on for ten, just to be sure that all areas etch evenly. After your ten minutes are up, scrape the excess cream back into the bottle, and rinse of the remaining. Make sure to read all of the directions on the back of the etching cream bottle, because etching cream can harm some types of material, and you don't want to mess up your sink!). After rinsing, peel off your stencil, and wash your plate off. There you are! Some pretty, monogrammed dishes for much less than $29.95 per plate!

Seriously, the pictures do NOT do them justice! They're adorable! If you come and eat dinner at my house, most likely you'll be served a meal on one of these plates, simply because I love them so much and want to show them off. I hope that you get to make some cute monogrammed dishes too! Hopefully I'll be back later this week with some more crafty things for you to try! Until then, happy crafting!