Floral Candy Dish

While browsing at my local thrift shop, I found this wonderful candy dish and decided I needed to transform it from a Discard to a Designer Piece.  Flowers and butterflies would look great painted on the white background.

I searched for and found some pretty pink/red 5-petal flowers to inspire me and I got out my butterfly paper punch.

I needed to test that the etching cream would etch off the glaze on the dish, so I cut out some butterflies from masking tape and removed them from the tape and taped the blue tape to the bottom of the dish.

Etching cream was spread onto the butterfly cutouts and I let it sit for 15 minutes before wiping it off and then carefully rinsing it.

After removing the tape, the butterflies were clearly etched onto the bottom.   Well, not that clearly.  But you can see the matte finish.

No problems. Great! Now to proceed with the design.

On the lid of the candy dish, I wanted an etched circle, so I covered the entire lid with blue masking tape.

I found an appropriate size Tupperware lid to outline for my circle.

After cutting out the circle and removing it, I applied etching cream. For the sides of the dish, I used 1” blue tape and taped it on the top and bottom, leaving a 1.5” space in between the tape to be etched.

I etched the exposed area so that it could be painted. After 15 minutes of etching with my great chocolate Etchall cream, I used the black plastic squeegee to scrape off the etching cream and put it back in the jar. (YES, you can reuse this cream over and over, even if the color has turned from white to Chocolate!) Then, I rinsed the dish and wiped it off with a paper towel.

The Etchall Cream took the glaze off the glass and gave it some ‘tooth’ for me to apply color.

I cut out my design and placed it over the etched circle, taping it at the top so that I could lift the design.

I put my sheet of transfer paper under the design and then traced the entire design with a ballpoint pen, carefully lifting the design to make sure I had transferred all the lines.

I did the same for the line around the candy dish.

Then I removed the design and the transfer paper.

Using my acrylic paint, I painted 5-petal flowers on the lid and around the dish. (I used a mix of red and white to get a pink color, but did a little bit of dipping the edge of the brush into the darker color to vary the colors. Showing off my Onestroke Painting background).

I let the flowers dry and used a mix of Green, white, and yellow for the leaves, again dipping the brush to vary the colors.

The pattern shows you how to easily paint the 5-petal flowers and the leaves.

Let the leaves dry and put a dot of yellow in the center of each flower. When that is dry, you can add little dots on top of the yellow. And, when the leaves are dry, using a fine brush, add a line in the center of each leaf.

The butterflies were outlined in Black Identipen and then filled in with a watered down version of the acrylic paint. I painted the butterflies on the bottom of the dish too. Don’t add white to your color and try to paint over the lines. The white is opaque (Can’t see through it) the watered down blue paint is translucent (Can see through it).  You can enlarge this pattern to fit your own candy dish.

I hope you enjoy creating a design of your own on a thrifted dish of your choice. I just love upcycling glass to keep it out of the landfill.

Remember to always use Etchall etching cream in your projects. It was voted the BEST by crafters.

And remember, you can click below to order from the Etchall site and I will get a small stipend that will help me to keep giving you these free tutorials.

Thanks and always remember to “Have A Colorful Day”

Kathie Camara, Etchall Designer, Glass & Canvas Artist.