After a friend’s 50th birthday party, I wrote about how I took her an apothecary jar filled with black M&M’s as a gift. It was so well received that I decided to put it into my arsenal of possible gifts to give this year. Since my daughter is a choc-o-holic, I decided to give her a jar full of pink M&M’s for Valentine’s Day. Chocolate and pink in one gift — I cannot go wrong!

I wanted to make it just a little more special, though, so I decided that I would use Chica’s glass etching technique to decorate my jar.

Chica’s project had the images clear and the rest of the glass etched, but I went the opposite way for my design. I wanted my image to be etched and the rest of the jar to remain clear. To accomplish this, I had to make my own template. I first drew my heart image onto a scrap of contact paper (I used clear, but any color/pattern will work) and cut out the middle. I made sure to leave enough contact paper around the design so that when I applied the cream, it wouldn’t spill over onto the area that I didn’t want etched. I then made a smaller heart to affix in the middle of the first one so I would have the effect of one heart within another.

Once I made sure that the contact paper was secure to the jar without any major wrinkles (I used the handle of the brush to rub down all the edges), Chica applied the glass etching cream for me, since the fumes are dangerous to a pregnant lady.

After waiting 5 minutes for it to work, she rinsed it off, peeled away the contact paper, and rinsed it again, and my image was complete.

Then I filled it with cute, pink M&M’s. Now I just have to hide it until Valentine’s Day!