Fish bowl

Supplies:

• #77-7721 Armour Bottle & Jar Cutter
• Armour Etch Glass Etching Cream
• #20-0182 Nautical Rub N Etch Stencil- 6 sheets (Seahorses were used for this project)
• #21-1629 Over N Over stencil sheet (graduated dots)
• #15-0315 Glass cleaner
• #31-0401 Beige vinyl masking
• #85-2171 Sponge brush
• #61-4163 Cutting mat w/knife set (optional) or
• #08-9777 Scissors
• #08-9999 Disposable gloves
• Large clear glass bottle (gallon vinegar, wine or cider bottle)
• Colored sand
• Decorative fish
• Washable marker
• Pencil
• Thick card stock or chipboard-approx 3”x 2”
• Tape measure
• Newspaper
• Eye protection
• Canvas gloves (gardening type work well)
• Cutter wheel oil
• Paper towels

General instructions:

1. Put on gloves and eye protection.
2. Oil cutter wheel as specified in instruction booklet.
3. Cut bottle high up the side, try to cut it as far as the sides are straight and at a height that will look the way a fish bowl would. Following the instructions that comes with your Bottle cutter or go to our website see: video.
4. Gently sand off the sharp cut edges of the rim with the sandpaper provided with your kit. Clean bottle with glass cleaner.

Create the wave stencil:

1. Measure the circumference of the bottle using a tape measure. If you do not have a tape measure, take a piece of string, wrap around bottle and measure on a ruler.
2. Unroll beige vinyl masking with the paper backing facing up.
3. There is a measured grid on the paper backing. Cut 1 strip 2” wide (wider if your making bigger waves) x the length of your measurement around the bottle PLUS 1”
4. Cut a 2^nd strip of vinyl masking, 3” wide x the length of your measurement plus 1”
5. Cut a square from card stock or chipboard, approx 2” high x 3” long (or larger if you want bigger waves).
6. Create your wave template: With a pencil, draw a simple single wave. Start in the bottom left corner of the cardstock, arch up, curl over, and then slope down into the lower right corner. Leave about ½” of space at the top of the cardstock. Refer to the picture to get the arch right.
7. Cut out wave from cardstock using either scissors or on a cutting mat with a craft knife.
8. Place the 2” wide strip of beige vinyl masking paper side up. Line up the wave template along the bottom edge of the vinyl masking. Trace the wave onto the paper side of the masking. Repeat down entire length of the strip, connecting the curls to each other in a smooth, continuous fashion. If you cannot trace a full wave at the end of the strip, do not trace one. You will be able to adjust where they join once the masking is on the bottle.
9. Cut out wave using either scissors or on a cutting mat with a craft knife. On the right hand end, leave most of the excess masking on for the final fit on the bottle. The upper half of the masking is your stencil (the nice looking half of the wave will not be used for this project-save for another day!).

Etching the bottle:

1. Peel off the paper backing from your vinyl wave stencil.
2. Starting with the left end of your stencil, line up the top straight edge of the stencil with  the rim of the bottle.
3. Wrap stencil around bottle.
4. With your tape measure or ruler, mark the bottle with a washable marker 1” below the bottom of each wave.
5. Take the second, 3” wide strip of vinyl, peel off the paper backing, and apply to the bottle along your marks, starting from the left and ending with the right end. Overlap the edges with the top edges even. The void between the two pieces of masking is your stencil and the area that will be etched.
6. Put on the disposable gloves. Dip foam brush into Armour glass etching cream. So it is heavily coated, but not dripping.
7. PAT, PAT, PAT the Etch Cream onto the bottle in between the wave stencil and the straight strip of masking until completely filled in (do not brush it on like you are painting, you will get streaky results). Leave Etch cream on 3-5 minutes, but no longer.
8. Turn bottle open end down under running water and rinse off all the Etch Cream. Remove all masking and rinse again. Dry bottle completely before the next step. PLEASE NOTE: Always rinse Etch Cream from the bottle with open end down. This will keep any water containing Etch Cream from going inside your bottle and accidentally etching the inside. View the directions and How to Videos
9. Cut out the Seahorses from the 6 stencil sheets.
10. Place and divide the seahorses equally around the bottle’s sides under the etched wave. Keep in place with strips of masking tape.
11. Rub down the stencils onto the bottle, mask them off and etch with Etching cream according to the package directions that came with your stencils. Also see the video on our website.
12. Next etch graduating rows of dots from the Over N Over stencil sheet in between the Seahorses, following the directions that came with the stencil package. Also see the video on our website.

Decorating your fish bowl:

1. Fill the bottom of your new fish bowl with colored sand and large decorative fish.

Suggestions:

1. Make layers of sand in different ocean colors to look like more waves.
2. Add bits of coral, driftwood, seashells, pearls other decorative creatures like crabs, lobsters, a mermaid or sea turtles to the sand.
3. How about putting a treasure chest with little gold coins (craft buttons or confetti from the party store), a pirate ship (aquarium store) or an undersea diver (action toy) on the sand!