Useful Personalized Teacher Appreciation Gifts!

Want some meaningful and inexpensive personalized teacher appreciation gifts to spoil your teachers with? Etching on a glass vase is easier than you think!

Hi Friends! We finally made it through teacher appreciation week and I wanted to share these easy personalized teacher appreciation gifts that I made for the teachers.

This was my first time with glass etching and I was a little nervous to try it but it was pretty easy! The one obstacle is always getting a stencil to lay around a curved surface perfectly. There ended up being a few pockets which leaked the cream but overall I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Personalized Teacher Gift Materials

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- - - glass vase (I just used one I had since I have tons!)
    - Armour Etch Cream
    - Adhesive Vinyl
    - Wood Stick and/or small paint brush
    - Cricut or cutting machine – Check out my ultimate resource for Cricut ideas here!

I first designed the stencil in Cricut Design Space. Just a basic, easy design.

Then I grabbed a scrap piece of adhesive vinyl and cut out the design.

You will use this as a negative stencil so weed out all the letters and cut designs. You should have your piece of vinyl left with the design cut out.

I use clear contact paper as transfer paper so just cut a piece about the same size as your design and lay it over. Rub the vinyl onto the transfer paper.

Lift up the transfer paper with vinyl attached and lay it on the vase. This is where it gets a little tricky! Try to put the middle down first and them smooth it to edges.

Smaller designs are easier to work with since they won’t have to curve so much. I learned the hard way! You can cut little slits in the vinyl around the edges so you can maneuver the edges a bit more.

After you rub the vinyl onto the glass and peel off the transfer paper, attach it to the edges just to protect the surface close to the vinyl from the cream. Take your vase and cream into a well-ventilated area, I went to my backyard and wore eye protection.

Follow the directions on the cream. Shake up the bottle. Dip a wooden stick into the bottle and start dabbing the cream on the design. I let mine sit for about ten minutes and then washed it off with soapy water (with the vinyl still on).

Peel off the vinyl and wash again. That’s it! I’m a little excited about all the glass items I can personalize now that I tried one. You should try it too! It’s easier than you think!

If you need a more detailed tutorial on glass etching click here!

Here are a few other personalized teacher appreciation gifts that are inexpensive and easy to make (click here)! Of if you need a whole bunch of inspiration for Teacher Appreciation week click here!