"Gather" Slate Sign

Hi folks!

I look forward to this time of year - the colors of the leaves, warm sweaters, family gathering together to share meals and memories.  It's the time of year when our family parties move inside to the kitchen and dining room from the patio and barbecue of summertime.  So, I take a little more time to decorate the house.

Signage is so popular now whether it is a phrase, a word or more.  One of the most popular words this year is "gather", so I thought it would be a great word to etch on slate.  I love the rustic look of slate and it's easy to etch.  Previously, I have cut stencils and etched inside the stencil.  This time, I'll show you how to etch the background, leaving the letters un-etched.  To do this, I'm using two of my favorite etchall® products:  etchall® dip 'n etch and etchall® resist gel.



Here's the slate sign I started with:

I traced the sign on a piece of scratch paper and wrote out the word to figure out the placement of the letters.  Then, I went over the letters with the resist gel.  I took a toothpick and went through the gel to spread it and added more where I wanted the letters thicker.  Then, I let it dry.

 Here's the sign with the dried resist gel.  Now, I'll put the sign in a bath of etchall® dip 'n etch.

To set up, I found a shallow plastic lid that fit my sign.

I poured the etchall® dip 'n etch over the sign to cover and waited for 15 minutes.

After etching, I pulled the sign from the etchall® dip 'n etch and rinsed under running water.  I let it dry and pulled the resist off the slate.  I poured the etching liquid back into the jar to use again later.

Here it is after etching:

I added a wire hanger.

"Gather" Etched Slate Sign

Quick and easy, right?  This rustic sign will be great in my kitchen or even hanging outside in the entryway.  Tie or wire on a few fall leaves or sprigs of evergreen for an added flair.

"Gather" Etched Slate Sign

Disclaimer:  I am on the Design Team for etchall and receive their products to use in my designs.  I have enjoyed using their products and highly recommend them.

March Pretty Palettes Challenge

Hi everyone,

This month I'm making more time for crafts.  After all, it is National Craft Month!  So far, I've made an etched slate sign, milk bottle flower hangers (see that next month on the Creating with Joy blog) and played with some re-usable mold putty and created a Wrapped Resin Key necklace. 

Today, it's time for more beading with the Pretty Palettes challenge for March over on the Halcraft blog.  Our inspiration this month is a beautiful photo of orange tulips from Molly Schaller.


Here's the palette generated from the photo:

And, here are the Bead Gallery beads that Molly chose to go with the palette:


Here are the beads that I picked out to go with this challenge:

I couldn't make it to Michaels and pick up Bead Gallery beads, so I did the next best thing - picked up a couple of strands of Bliss Beads, which are also make by Halcraft.  I really liked how these ceramic beads had greenish flecks on the orange - a perfect fit to the palette!  I'll supplement the ceramic beads and the fire agate rounds with some beads from my stash.

Although I started out thinking of springtime and tulips, with the color of the beads and the wood and stone, I think it came out to be more evocative of a recent trip of mine.  The dark oranges in my beads took me off the path of tulips and I ended up in the Painted Desert!

Painted Desert

Here's the necklace with additions of some Czech wavy discs, an oval picture jasper donut and a tiger skin rondelle from my supplies.  There are also some Bead Gallery wood chips and Bliss Beads crackled glass chips.  I also tied on a couple of green leaves that I had.  Designing is always an adventure, with unexpected twists and turns! 

Desert Springtime

Head over to the Pretty Palettes reveal and see all the other lovely creations from this challenge.  They are inspirational!  I see a visit to Michaels in my future for some of those ceramic rounds and wood discs!

Happy creating!

Etched Slate Sign

Hi Crafty Friends!

I'm back from a road trip to Arizona where I saw many amazing sights like the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert.  Among the many fascinating things I saw were petroglyphs.  These are ancient drawings carved into the rock in many places around the world.  These petroglyphs inspired the slate sign I etched here.

I received some new materials from etchall® for this blog hop and I was eager to try them out.  One item was a etchall® resist gel to use with etchall® etching crème.

After studying the petroglyphs, I chose a simple sun as a motif on a slate sign.  I drew my own image with a circle and rays.

Here it is drawn with pencil on the slate.  You can erase whatever pencil marks that are left later.

I used the resist gel and went over the pencil lines.

Then, I let it dry until it was clear.  Using a toothpick, I filled the ring and rays with etching crème.

After fifteen minutes, I rinsed off the etching crème.  Ordinarily, I'd scrape off the etching crème and return it to the bottle, since it is re-useable.  But, in this case, I used very little crème.  Once the crème was rinsed off, I pulled of the resist gel. 

Here's the result:

I liked the look of the primitive sun on the rough slate, but I thought it needed a little more.  So, I added some smaller petroglyph motifs on both sides.

I drew the motifs with pencil, then used a toothpick dipped into the etchall® etching crème and went over the lines.  After 15 minutes, I rinsed them quickly under running water.

Here's the final result of my etched slate sign:

Etched Slate Sign

Etched Slate Sign

Here it is again showing the great etchall® product used in this project.  I hope you'll try it because it is fun and easy to use with easy clean-up and very little odor.  This is the first time I have used the etchall® resist gel, and I really like how it works on a rough, uneven surface like the slate.  I have tried stencils before on slate and the resist gel works much better.

Take a look at all the other designer's etched projects for this blog hop.  You can find them all on the Designer Crafts Connection Blog.