June 6, 2010 at 1:34 pm

Personalizing a Wine Bottle Tutorial

An etched glass wine bottle personalized for a wedding gift.
Personalizing a glass wine bottle can be a great gift for a wedding, anniversary, birthday, or special holiday.  And one way to personalize the wine bottle is to etch it and below I show you a the steps it tales to create one with photos to follow along. If you already know the basics of etching glass, then its really the idea that counts so give it a try.

First, pick up a good bottle of wine and remove the front label. The labels are usually hard to remove so you can try to soak it in water for a while. I then use a razor blade to scrap the paper label off quickly, and then rub off the glue residue with lacquer thinner and a rag.

Preparing the glass by removing the label.

For the second step, I place the vinyl sheet or contact paper around the front of the bottle.

Applying the stencil to the wine bottle.

Third, draw or trace a white and black stencil design onto the vinyl sheet. Try to make it level as much as possible. There are some ways to do this by measuring. After the pattern is traced, cut out the areas that you want etched. This is usually best done with an exacto knife.

Weeding the stencil and preparing for etching.

Fourth, mask off the outer areas of the stencil. This will prevent any areas that you don’t want etched to be exposed to the etching cream or sandblast.

Masking the wine bottle and preparation for glass etching.

Fifth, once ready, etch with either the sandblaster, cream, or engraving method. For this example, I used the sandblasting method which will lightly chip the surface of the glass. All you do is blast over the exposed areas of the stencil evenly.

For this step, you chose a etching method and begin marking the wine bottle.

Sixth, wipe off and wash any reside. Then peel the vinyl resist off by using an exacto knife to assist.

Removing and cleaning the stencil off the wine bottle

That’s all there is too it. Then just give away the etched glass gift for your occasion. Please leave me any comments or questions below.  If you liked this free tutorial, I think you will like my etching manual: www.glassetchingsecrets.com/info.html.  Check it out or please leave me a comment!

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Eric Robert
About Eric Robert
I am the owner and creator of this website. I got my start in etching many years ago. At first I wanted to start a business, but after finding a lot of cool information through countless hours of researching, I decided to etch as a hobby and build this website to help others. -Eric

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19 comments so far

  1. Rockie Gaddie

    June 8th, 2010 at 10:16 pm

    Good tutorial. I am vlessed with a small vinyl cutter.

    Rockie

  2. Dale Robertson

    June 8th, 2010 at 10:24 pm

    I like this idea and have done a few myself, it does take a little patience but well worth the personal touch trying to achieve..

  3. Em

    June 8th, 2010 at 10:53 pm

    Hi Eric
    Thanks so much for this tutorial, I have had glass etching cream in my drawer for probably 15 years. I did one project and that was it, so now you have sparked my interest again. I am a stained glassoholic for about 25 years.I sell my projects at a hospital once a month , and love every minute of it.
    Thanks again
    Em

  4. diane.newberry@blueyonder.co.uk

    June 9th, 2010 at 6:17 am

    Hi Eric. The bottle looks fantastic, thanks for showing us, i did my first etching of two teddies, my etching cream is blue and doesnt seem as bright as yours any tips
    keep up with the etching
    diane

  5. diane

    June 9th, 2010 at 11:48 am

    Hi Eric, Fantastic bottle, my first etching was a teddy on a photo frame, but my etching cream is blue, mine not showing up as good as yours any tips
    thanks diane

  6. Katherine

    June 9th, 2010 at 1:00 pm

    This is a great idea. I have alot of empty wine bottles setting around and have thought I would make some tiki torch’s with them the engraving will make them more attractive.

  7. Eric Robert

    Eric Robert

    June 12th, 2010 at 1:04 pm

    Diane, my etching is more noticeable because I used the sandblasting method. Sandblasting the glass gives a better looking etch than the cream. Also, what kind of etching cream do you have? I’ve never seen a blue kind. Anyone know what this brand is? Thanks

  8. Pat

    June 16th, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    Good tutorial. I leave the front label on and take the back one off. Then I use rub and buff to set off the etching. I also have a sandblaster. To me it looks more professional.

  9. surendran

    July 8th, 2010 at 3:34 am

    here you showed different steps . but one thing how can apply etching cream on the glass with brush? or sprayer pl show that.
    Another one thing etching cream brought from market?.or making own .i mean mixing any chemicals.

    how can use blasterpot.that is not showed here.

  10. Gman56

    October 22nd, 2010 at 2:41 am

    Just started doing wine bottles just for fun. But have learned a few things. To remove the label fill your sink with the hottest tap water you have and the bottle to, leave it in the bath for about 15 min the label will come off pretty easy. I did get a little fancier with the stencils by using a Cricut stencil cutter and the program “Make the Cut” the cricut was $99.00 and the Program was $58.00. I picked the cricut up from Michaels and the program is readily available on line. So far have done Alladin and Jasmine, Rajah, and the Genie. Also numerous Christmas stencils. If you use a product called rub and buff bought at the local craft store your designs really stick out.

  11. Eric Robert

    Eric Robert

    October 22nd, 2010 at 9:26 am

    Hey, Gman- awhile back I did a lot research on the different stencil cutters. The cricut was one of them and the bad thing I remember about them is that they didn’t cut very thick vinyl for sandcarving and you had to buy these chessy patterns in cartridge packages. But from what I recall, someone developed a software for it that can cut any graphic. Is this Make the Cut software what I am talking about?

  12. Gman56

    October 22nd, 2010 at 11:52 am

    Eric,
    Make the Cut was the program a young lady at the local box craft store recommended and she seemed quite knowledgable about the program and the cricut. Make the Cut allows me to download a picture and do a pixel trace to reproduce it. Right now I’m cutting 3mm vinyl but feel very confident that I could cut thicker vinyl without a problem. Im waiting now for a shipment of the oramask vinyl which I found the address in your book (Thank-you very much) Buying the cricut vinyl costs #10.00 for two 12″ x 24″ sheets. The real drawback with the cricut is the stencil size. The largest I can produce is 51/2″ X 11 1/2″ but for my early begininigs it suffices. Going to try a craftshow with my wife in November to test that wine bottle market. I use the cricut personal but you can upgrade to cut larger stencils. My problem beng artisicly challenged is trying to figure out what part of the stencil to eliminate after it is cut. I usually guess wrong and end up sandblasting a negative image. Oh yeah by the way I use a small cabinet gravity flow sand blaster and get some real good results. I have varied the pressure from 30lbs to 100lbs I’m just limited to object size.

  13. Linda

    January 30th, 2011 at 10:00 pm

    Very nice presentation. Good to see you get back to people and share your experience. So nice to have a real person that takes the time to explain things.

  14. Dave

    April 25th, 2011 at 7:39 pm

    My biggest question is pricing. How do you know how much to charge?

  15. Eric Robert

    Eric Robert

    April 25th, 2011 at 8:09 pm

    Dave, that is a good question. Maybe I will email everyone and create a discussion on this topic.

  16. KaiserKreations

    KaiserKreations

    July 13th, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    Could you sandblast this? Woudl you? or could it turn into a MESS?

  17. Eric Robert

    Eric Robert

    August 10th, 2012 at 2:27 pm

    Sorry, the post is somewhat confusing. I did sandblast it, but for the picture showed the supplies needed for the cream process if you wanted to take that route.

  18. KaiserKreations

    August 10th, 2012 at 2:45 pm

    Thats cool. I think that would be a neat farewell gift idea! Is it a full bottle of wine? or an empty?

  19. Eric Robert

    Eric Robert

    August 10th, 2012 at 3:53 pm

    You can sandblast on full bottles of wine. I have done it many times. This specific tutorial, was just an example because there was no occasion at the time so I used an empty one.

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