Crafty Christmas part 2: Glass Etching!

I finally broke down and joined Pinterest a couple weeks ago, and I have become obsessed with finding craft ideas on there. Pinterest is where I got the idea for my brother's present: glass etching! Sounds scary and impossible, but it's actually very easy. I decided to etch a casserole dish, and I wrapped it with a collection of favorite family casserole recipes... I figured that three busy guys living in freezing Chicago might like some comfort food for dinner on cold, snowy nights. Plus, they can make a casserole in advance and freeze portions for nights when they're too busy to cook. In retrospect, I'm not sure if my brother's French roommate eats casserole... his side of the fridge/freezer is full of filets and fois gras... but hey, it never hurts to try new things!
To practice etching before I made the casserole dish, I tried it on an olive oil bottle... so my photos below go back and forth from casserole to bottle. Sorry about that. I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted because I was afraid of getting etching acid on my new iPhone.
To do this project, here is what you need:

• Glass to etch (The instructions on the etching acid warn that it won't work on all Pyrex dishes; however, the casserole dish I used is Pyrex and it worked fine. Also, I had a few smaller items that I did test runs on before I started on the casserole dish, just so I could figure out how long the acid needed to sit on the glass.)
• Small paintbrush (you'll throw it away when you're finished, so make sure it's not a good one)
• Rubber gloves
• A bottle of Armor Etch (costs about $20 at Hobby Lobby... sounds expensive, but it's a big bottle and you can etch a lot with it!)
• Stencils and masking tape (They sell special letter stencils specifically for glass etching, but they are expensive, around $10 for a pack. They were also really small. I bought stick-on poster letters instead, and I used the extra paper around each letter to make my own stencils for about $3.)

First, place your design on the bottle and use masking tape around the edges to make sure it's stuck on there really well.

Using the small brush, paint a thick layer of Armor Etch inside each letter. Make sure you wear gloves while doing this! The bottle warns that Armor Etch can cause burns on your skin that aren't always immediately apparent. That doesn't sound pleasant.

The bottle says to let the Armour Etch sit for 60 seconds. I did that on a sample glass jar, and the etching is barely visible. For the olive oil jar, I let the acid sit for 5 minutes, and for the casserole dish I waited 10 minutes. I highly recommend waiting at least 5 minutes before rinsing.

Rinse the stencils and glass thoroughly under the faucet (still wearing gloves). Then peel the stencils off and admire your work!

Just so we're clear, this says "kickasserole." It's a little joke that my brother and I have...

It says "olio," which is oil in Italian

 These pictures don't really show how cool the glass etching looks, but I promise it's an extremely easy technique and it looks quite impressive.
I can't wait to make some monogrammed wine glasses--that would be a great gift!