About 5 years ago a friend from our church who did carpentry was working on remodeling a historic home in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. The crew was going to toss out some old windows. My friend remembered that I liked to repurpose items, so he asked me if I was interested in taking them. Of course, I said, “YES!’ I had no idea what to do with them, however. They were left in my shed for a long time and more than once my husband was going to put them out for trash pickup. However, I kept saying I’d like to do something with them someday, so they stayed in the shed.

Last Fall my husband unexpectedly passed of COVID. I decided to make a garden in his memory and for my healing in my backyard patio area. That was when I came up with the idea of etching those old glass window panes in the shed. (There were 2 that were not glass and I just put vinyl designs on them). I used a silhouette cutter to enlarge my patterns. All my patterns had a “garden” theme (except one which had a “patriotic” theme since my husband had served in the Air Force).

First, I cleaned the glass with alcohol. Then I tested them to see if they could take an etch by putting a dot in one corner. I measured the glass and decided what design I wanted to put on the window. I laid the window down on a card table and carefully applied the vinyl using a squeege to make sure there were no bubbles where the etching creme could possibly seep under. I covered the extra areas without vinyl with clear contact paper so no etching creme would accidentally etch the glass.