Underwater World Hand Painted Glass

This new glass was not created only by me. My friend started to work on it  for her son and drew octopus, fish and seaweeds. The problem was in her outliner. She had a bad one so she didn't like her art work and gave it to me.
I left almost all underwater creatures she has drawn except couple that was covered with thick rubber-looking outliner. Those were deleted using hot oven and sharp knife.

After removing those parts I drew Nemo, jellyfish and octopus on the glass base and started painting.

 Something was wrong with this glass, I have never had so many problems with painting anything. Paints, outliner and my hand just did not want to be with this glass.

 I was painting and removing what I had painted, I almost broke this glass itself twice... This was tough but I did it. Finally it was ready and was presented as a gift to my friend and her kids. I hope they like it.

The pictures have a bad quality because my camera stopped working recently, so all pictures were made using my cell phone.

Writing Cabinet Renovation

New 2012 has started and my New Year resolution is to put more attention to this blog, find more ideas and create more handmade things.
I haven't posted anything about furniture restoration and renovation for a long time. Just haven't seen anything I would like to share. I found this writing cabinet renovation couple days ago. Just compare these pics.
Before

and after

This writing desk was born in USSR about 60 years ago but after renovation it looks like new. I like bright colors and fresh look. It's really good for children's room. 

The renovation was done by LiveJournal user asa_asa. Here you can find more details and how to. BTW it's not first asa_asa renovation I am writing about. This toys cabinet was renovated by her as well.

New Year Gift from my sister - Knitted Dragon

Chinese New Year 2012  is the Year of the Water Dragon. There are still about two weeks before New Year but I already got my first gift. This knitted dragon was made for me by my sister. Unfortunately I will not see her till the  next spring or even summer so she gave me this cutie earlier. 

This baby-dragon supposed to bring happiness and good luck in my life all next year and years after. 

 I really like it. Thanks, sister!

Cupboard Door-Gone-Art Desk

Author of this idea is Autie. She invented and created these funny and useful tables from real junk.

 

Guess what is the source for these tables? Doors from old cabinets. Kids love art and their own craft table inspires them to do more and more. Children can seat on the floor and draw because of short table stands. Table top that can be opened is another great idea. That gives you space for paper, pencils and other crafts. 

As I mentioned before for creating such kid table you need doors, stands, paint, base, sand paper, screws, drill and everything you think will be useful for decorating.

First step is sanding of doors, you should remove old paint and/or finish. Clean up the door. Attach stands. If there are no door hinges you should attach them too. Now it's time to decorate. You can do whatever you want, for example you can use decoupage as Autie did.

Step by step instruction  and more pictures can be found here www.u-createcrafts.com. This web page contains huge amount of all kind of handmade and decorating. 

Marionettes: where to buy, how to make

She came from Czech Republic, her name is Maria and she is a good witch. All who knows me personally knows that my nickname is a which name and also I have nickname flame_witch in LiveJournal, so witches are kinda my mascot.

Why I am posting it here? In my handmade blog? Because it's a handmade, at least I was told that :) And because I like it a lot.
Czech traditional marionettes are usually hand carved from lime wood. I have very simple one but there are marionettes that have movable mouth and ears and have much more than four strings. I found two shops with amazing puppets: www.djepeto.com and www.handmadepuppetdreams.com. Creating marionette is hard and delicate workmanship, but everything is possible and here is some tutorial how to make simple but cute marionette. 

To create this fluffy baby ostrich we need
1) fluffy knitting yarn;
2) crochet hook, size 12;
3) polyester batting; 
4) couple jersey patches;
5) 2 buttons for eyes;
6) threads for embroidery; 
7) 16 inches long wood rail;
8)  pressure sensitive paper;
9) scissors, threads, nails, hammer, needles, awl.
Step 1. Neck Kniting. Make 40 chain stitches, and than 3 rows of single snitches. Fix the thread and left thread around 7 inches long. We need this part of thread to attach head to the body later.
Make legs: make 80 chain stitches and 2 rows of single stitches. 

Make body: create 20 chain stitches and 10 rows of single stitches.  Do not cut the thread. Take your rectangle and fold in half.  Put edges together using slip stitches

Reverse, fill up with the polyester batting, attach edges to each other using slip stitches.
Make head. Create 5 chain stitches,  make circle with 1 single stitch. Make 1 row of single stitches. In second row add one more single stitch in each second stitch. In third add one more single stitch in each 3rd stitch; in 4th row put 2 single stitches in each 4th stitch, and in 5th row put 2 single stitches in each 5th stitch. Make 4 more rows, fill up head with the polyester batting and finish your crochet work.
Step 2. Cut  off jersey beak and paws parts. For beak we need a triangle with 3 inches long sides. Paws are almost oval, 3,5 inches long and 2,5 inches wide. Sew paws and beak. And fill them up with polyester batting.

Step 3. Put together all parts using thread and needle. Attach eyes.

Step 4. Take two threads 40 inches long and two threads 20 inches long. Attach these threads to the top of head, paws and tail using needle. It is better to fix needle in three points on paws or you can add some weight to the paws. It will be easer to control your puppet.

Step 5. Make the control bar. Take wooden rail and cut it to half (8 inches long each). Make cross using 2 nails, you can cover your control bur with pressure sensitive paper. Make holes using awl on the end of each end of cross. Run thread or fishing line through holes, fix it. You are done. 

I would like to say thanks to user ledenika. She created this tutorial and made pictures. If you like knitting, crochet, embroidery and a lot of others creative, cute and handmade things visit her blog http://ledenika.blogspot.com/. 

One more stool

Last time I had a lot of posts about stools' remodeling and renovation. I don't even know why. Hope it's the last stool in row. Next time I'll post about another furniture piece, I promise.
The summer memories inspired vikulin to create this stool for kids. Summer rain, grandmother, milk and all other childhood memories make this stool so cute, so warm and tender:

A lot of other handmade ideas and lessons can be found in vikulin Live Journal blog. This particular stool can be found here. By the way -  this stool is for sell, so if you really like it you can buy it.

Woodland Happy Tree Bookshelfs

More and more creative and funny furniture in new year, see what I found:

This is not just bookshelf, this is  enchanted Woodland Happy Tree Bookshelf! This shelf was made by cute little gnomes and fairies and it's smiling!  And there is shop filled up with such amazing and magic things: bookshelves, shelf stands, bookends, display shelves... Want to take a look? Here is the link http://www.etsy.com/graphicspaceswood

Take a look on this Happy Flower Shelf Stand -  perfect piece for a baby nursery, children's room or anywhere in your home.  The Daisy Flower has a ready smile and would love to be planted on a shelf in your home.  

 

The Woodland Happy Tree Display Shelf is half the size of original children's bookshelf design, making it perfect to display collections or cherished family treasures in any room of the house... he's not just for the kiddies anymore!
Versatile size allows Herbie Jr. to be hung on the wall or sat on a tabletop. He is a completely freestanding tree! Oh, and the cutest part... the spook hole is cut through the trunk and becomes an adorable picture frame. There's a plate on the back. Simply remove the plate and put your child's photo, artwork or whatever you'd like over the top. Kids will love changing this out and putting different pictures in there!

If you liked all staff above and would like to add some magic to your everyday's life visit the graphicspaceswood shop on etsy, as well as other shops and pages of these furniture fairies: decals: http://www.graphicspaces.etsy.com; print: http://www.graphicspacesprint.etsy.com; www.twitter.com/graphicspaces; www.facebook.com/graphicspaces