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.

Miniature glass figurines - 6

Two more glass figurines in my collection. They came from Ukraine. 

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!

Travel book - Ukraine

Here are new pages for my travel book. This time they are related to my trip to Ukraine. I didn't bring too many tickets, brochures, etс this time so it's only five pages.

First page contains list of clothing I planned to take. I had very small suitcase filled up with gifts so need to be minimalist.

 Next two pages are about my #1 city in Ukraine - L'viv. This city is fantastic!

 Last two pages contain memories about road trip to Uzhgorod, Chernivtsi and road-trip:

Grapes. Wine. Glass

I have finished painting glass #2 from the new set. Here is the first one, if you missed it. I decided that this set will have name "Harvest time" and  I'll paint leaves, grapes, pumpkins and something else:) Probably apples but I am still thinking about it.
What is more natural than having wine glass painted with grapes? :-)

This glass is a kind of experimental. I have tried different brushes, new paintings, new outliner. Some of these experiments were not 100% successful. So there are small defects. Probably if you don't know where they are you wont't even notice them. But I know. I see them and it makes me a little bit upset.

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.