Last leaf....

We had snow this weekend. In October!!! In New Jersey!!! A lot of trees still have green leaves. It was really mind-blowing: green, gold, yellow, red leaves covered with white snow. Winter is coming and it's impossible to stop it. Really soon all gorgeous leaves and wonderful colors will be gone except one last leaf. Live Journal user macka_gothika found a way to save a warm piece of fall. These lovely leaves are brooches. Amazing, isn't it?

All these leaves are for sale. You can buy them here also you can visit online store to see or/and buy other creative art works made by macka-gothika.

Halloween is coming

This year I am kind of busy for handmade hallowing ideas hunting but some hallowing stuff is impossible to miss. These pumpkin-shaped earnings are so cute and so "for the season".

The author of these little pumpkins is felliniya. There are a way more nice handmade girlish things in her blog. 

And finally - yes, these earring are for sale:) You can contact felliniya using this e-mail nekrofilija@yandex.ru

Peak of Colors - Hand Painted Glass

I have finished painting of one more wine glass - Peak of Colors. This is first glass for new hand painted set. I still have not decided how the next glass in this set will look. I have two options: make all set using Autumn theme or make set using seasons of year theme. Anyway here it is. Glass inspired by a colorful death of summer...

Next picture is the look from inside. This glass is for white wine and I suppose that pale color of wine will accent colors of glass.

Orange Box

I found master class on how to make this box long time ago while surfing the internet. I don't know who was the first invented how to make small boxes from oranges. This is useless but totally organic (except acrylic paints). So if you have time, wish to paint something and have an orange you can do such box:

First of all you need an orange. Cut it and eat it. Then put halves of orange skin in boiled water and add two table spoons of baking soda. Left it for 12 hours

Now your orange skin is really soft so you can put it over glass and fix using rubbers and let it dry a week or two. After two weeks you'll get two halves of your future box

Now it's painting time. I chose India patterns because I want to practice to paint them for a long time.

When you are done with painting cover your box with couple nice layers of finish. I added zip lock to my box but it was also just an experiment and practice.

My travel book experiment

I love to travel as much as I love handmade. It's been a while since I got back from wonderful European vacations. I would like to save my memories and all these nice small things I usually bring from gateways - tickets, maps, postcards... So I've put them together and made some kind of a travel book. "Some kind" because it's my first experiment with travel book. I've seen a lot of them way better then mine.
Page about the city I liked the most - Český Krumlov

Kraków pages. We started our trip in this city:

 Next destination - Bratislava:

The following page is my favorite one. I tried to show Bratislava atmosphere without putting any words or Bratislava's landmarks... 

Next one - Vienna, city of luxury and coffee: 

 And last one - Prague...

There are other pages in the book, but they don't deserve  to be put

All about pillows

I don't write about such stuff but a good friend of mine, Nataly, just opened her shop on etsy. I would like to help her in her business at least with some promotion. And finally I like pillow covers she makes. These are two reasons why I desided to write this post.
Brand new shop is filled with a lot of pillow covers of any style. They are cute!
My favorite item in this brand new shop is this flower print pillow. It's fresh and bright. I love such things.

Next one I would like to highlight is elegant and romantic set of three pillow covers "Time to Dream". Black and white colors are simple and perfect in their simplicity:

And last one I want to put here is funny, fashionable, a little bit punk pillow cover.

So don't wait, check Trendy Dreams Shop on etsy to find stylish and elegant custom made designer pillow covers, drapes, valances, bedspreads, blankets and anything else you want:)

Butterflies coffee cups

My new glass-painting work, now butterflies. It is birthday gift for my another friend. I hope she'll like it. It was much easier to paint these cups than paint wine glasses set I gave as a gift for my another friend. Looks like soon all my friends will have cups or glasses from me:) This set name is "Butterflies" and here are "Night butterflies"

and "Day butterflies"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitchen Cabinet Renovation

I'm back. I was really busy last couple weeks and totally had no time for this blog. But now I have a lot of new materials, so...
Furniture renovating is infectious :) This cabinet renovation was made by my really good friend. And first of all I would like to say thanks to her. She spent a lot of time and efforts to make this great renovation, and share with me step by step instructions and pictures. Thank you, Nadiya. And I miss you!
When I first saw this piece of junk made from pressed wood it looked like old ugly cabinet. So here is "before" picture:

 

Next time when I met this cabinet it was like brand new and stylish, as we can see on "after" pictures

So how it was done...
First step in any renovation, remove all old finish and painting. So take the sand paper (start from using 60 and then use paper with higher numbers to make your sanded surface smoother)

Next step - covering cabinet with base color. In this case it was white acrylic water-based painting. 

When base coat is dried it's time to cover cabinet with couple nice layers of paint you would like your cabinet be. So take beige acrylic paint and put couple layers of it. 

Time to be an artist. Take pictures you like, for example these gorgeous peacocks, and print them out 

Take pencil and lead them where they suppose to be

Using acrylic paints add colors to your painting:

When your painting is completed cover all cabinet with water based finish. Don't buy a cheap brush or painting roller for it, because cheap ones can leave traces and hairs on your cabinet.  Put couple of layers of finish, one is not enough to protect painting from damages.
Last step - attach new cabinet handles and you are done. Instead of old cabinet you have brand new piece of art in your kitchen.