Enjoy Life and Love: Glass Stenciled Mirror {tutorial}

Two of my good friends, Nick and Sarah, got married at the end of July. They have been dating eight years and had known each other four years before that. We went to middle school and high school together so I have known both of them for a long time (or what seems like a long time).

A few years ago (or maybe less?) they bought what seems to be a beautiful historic home in Connecticut. I say "seems" because I have not actually seen it in person yet which is a shame on me. I know they were looking for antiques to fill their home and when I remembered I had purchased this mirror, yet not hung it in my own home, I thought of them.

I wanted to make a subway art mirror and although it didn't totally end up the way I envisioned, I was still happy with the result. Since I do not have a Silhouette and I didn't want to hand paint all the words, I went to a craft store to look at stencils. Lo and behold, I found blank stencils - hallelujah! I thought it would be easier to make my own stencils rather than lining up each letter for every word with precut stencils (I'm still not so sure about that). Once I got home with the blank stencils, I printed out various words that I wanted to use on the computer.

I grabbed a Sharpie and traced every word onto the stencil. I realized that letters with "inside areas" like P, R, A, and O were going to require an alternative plan since cutting the stencils out eliminated the center areas completely. So, I added an extra cutting line to try and preserve some of these letters since I didn't want it looking "off."

Once the words were cut-out, I started with their names because I knew I wanted it in the center and it was significantly bigger than the rest of the words.

For the etched glass effect I used NAME OF BRAND paint which I am thrilled worked otherwise I would have had to go to plan B which was doing this all on a piece of painted wood in contrasting colors and then inserting it in the mirror's frame. I did a few words at a time since it required me to paint a few coats, peel off the stencil and do touchups all before it started to dry.

Looking back, I think the words should have been larger to give it more of a subway art feel, but since the words are smaller, it is almost more of a mirror than I originally thought it would be. It also would have been much cleaner looking and more efficient if I had a Silhouette, but make do with what you have, right?!