I have a problem with clutter. Namely, SEEING clutter. I'm okay with it being there, so long as I don't have to see it. Thus, I tend to pick all of my cabinets to have solid doors: I can then close them and not see the clutter.
This didn't work out so well for our video game cabinet, though, as it has glass doors. Glass?! You can see through that to all of the clutter inside! After a good two years, I finally decided to put a stop to this.
The solution? Frost the glass! Yes, frosted glass means you can't see through it. And since I recently got a Cricut Expression and SCAL, I also got creative with it.
I'm quite pleased with the results:
I used a combination method with Armour Etch. Figured I would post a tutorial in case anyone is interested. Please excuse my glaring-photos.
I did the etching on the INSIDE of the cabinet door. Just in case I somehow messed up the wood finish. I first lined the edge with painters tape, since I didn't know how the cream would affect the wood.
Next, I cut out my little space-invaders from contact paper on my Cricut machine and put them down on the glass. I tried to make sure I had a good seal between the glass and the contact paper. My contact paper never seems to stick very well.
Then, my combined method comes into play! Since my contact paper stinks, I only used it to get the design I needed. I then covered my open areas of the design with puffy fabric paint.
However, since the fabric paint dries as all one piece, you have to lift up the contact paper while the paint is still wet. Be careful! It's easy to mess up the design while doing this, though you can fix up small errors after it dries. I left the little alien eyes where they were and cut them out after it dried.
Let it dry! I think I gave mine a few hours in a room with a fan. In this shot you can see the entire design in paint while it dries:
Now the fun part. After cutting out all the little alien eyes, it's time to put on the etching cream. This stuff has been hit or miss with me previously, so I was really nervous about this. It turned out really well with this method:
First, shake up that bottle REALLY well! Shake it until you think it's okay, then shake it some more. Next, GLOB it onto the glass, stroking it in one direction (I used a foam brush). Once you've got a good cover over everything, then go back and stroke it in the opposite direction. I then went over it once again WITH GLOVES and made a circular motion all over the cream. I let mine sit for about twenty minutes to get a good frosty look. I know the label says only 5 minutes, but I've never found 5 minutes to be long enough.
Don't forget your gloves! This stuff is nasty! And smells like eggs! Yuck!
Once you're done, wash it all off (I washed mine in the bathtub--keep your gloves on), and peel away the paint stencil. A quick wash of the glass with glass cleaner and you're all done!
