Glitter Wine Glasses

 Glitter Wine Glasses

The glitter wine glasses are back! Finally!

I first made a set of these from a pair of yard sale wine glasses. I posted them for sale in my Etsy shop last year and they were super popular among treasury lists. They finally sold in March, and I have no idea why it took me so long to make them again!  I just love the glitz.

Want to make a pair for yourself? It's easy! Find the glassware you want (I like to shop at Ross) and use Martha Stewart's Multi-Surface Glitter acrylic craft paint. The color Sunburst Gold has been my favorite so far. Then grab a brush and go to work! You can paint the base or the sides, or the stem...anything is possible! Once you've painted until your heart is content and the paint is dry then bake the glassware on a 175-200 degree oven (in a pan and on top of parchment paper) for 20-30 min. The bake time helps cure the glitter and the paint to the glass better in my opinion.

A few word of advice, though.

#1 The glitter density in this paint is very thin. It took many coats and I tried to keep the coats thick. It took half of a 2 oz bottle to make one pair of glasses. Make sure to let it dry completely between coats.

#2 Be sure not to let the paint touch any of the drinking areas (lip area, and especially not inside the glass). The paint is non-toxic but it's better to be safe than sorry.

#3 The color does change in the oven. I first tried making glasses using a beautiful midnight blue glitter paint. But after curing in the oven some of the blues changed into an irridescent green tint. It still looked pretty cool, but I really was hoping for the blue color to stay. I can imagine that with some experimentation with paints you could make some really cool looking glasses with variable irridescent colors! The paint bottle says that you can cure the paint by leaving it to dry for 21 days, but I'm not usually that patient and that is why the oven cure comes into play. If you want to be sure the color does not change then you might want to go this route instead.

#4 The paint bottle says that after curing 21 days (out of the oven) the paint is safe to put in the dishwasher on the top shelf only. I've not tried doing this, even after doing an oven cure on the paint like I mentioned above. I tell customers to hand wash the glasses. But if you're brave enough to go that route, you probably can!

Peter Pan Crochet Collar

Crochet Peter Pan Collar in Misty Taupe

Naturally Caron Spa yarn is one of my most favorite yarns. It is a bamboo blend yarn and everything I make with it is so soft, yet has a gorgeous sheen to it. All of my little projects end up looking polished when I work with it compared to other yarns I use.

Since I use it a lot, I always have scraps of it lying around. Gathering some inspiration from Pinterest and my border stitch books I decided to make a Peter Pan collar out of this beautiful Misty Taupe color.  I created this pattern from experimentation and random ideas I found in my crochet border books, but I never wrote my final pattern down.

I am so happy with the finished product! The color and the pattern really shaped this collar into something that looks like an heirloom piece.  It can be worn loosely or it can be sewn to the neck of another shirt, dress, or cardigan. Some people wear them much like a necklace. The button can be placed in the back and worn that way as well! So much versatility!

I have a lot more scraps of this yarn in other shades. Now the dilemma is if I should recreate this collar in other colors, or if I should create a different pattern for each color? Hmm.....

 

Glitter Wine Glasses

          Aren't these fabulous?

Last fall I decided to turn a pair boring wine glasses into a spectacular pair for special occasions. So, of course, I started out with looking for ideas on Pinterest. After looking a number of ideas and tutorials I finally decided to experiment on my own.

The hardest part was finding a set of glitter paints that were non-toxic, bake-able, and would not change color after being baked onto the glassware. I found after some experimentation that no matter what, the glitter would change color and tone during the baking process. But I lucked out with some gold paint that happened to change to a prettier color than the original color! (That's the trick of this project!) And even though I could find non-toxic glitter paints, they were still recommended not to be "food safe," which meant that I needed to keep the paint low enough to not  cross over the area of the glass people would touch with their mouths.

It took me a couple of days to apply the paint. It took nearly 10 coatings. And it was important to let each coat of paint dry completely before beginning the next coat.

The baking process was fairly easy. I put the glasses on a parchment lined sheet pan and baked them at 200 degrees, checking and rotating them them every 10-20 minutes until the paint was uniform in color and appeared to be adhered to the glass.  It is a smelly process and be prepared to air out your kitchen and oven after the process is over. You will not want that smell baked into what you are making for dinner!

I was very surprised that my glasses became super-popular on Etsy. I only sold one pair, but while it was listed it was featured in many, many treasuries and had thousands of views! I'm debating on making some more for the fall and re-listing them in my shop. However, with the pregnancy right now I'm not sure if I want to  be inhaling the paint fumes until after the baby arrives (and she is spending the afternoon with Grandmother and Granddaddy!). So perhaps I will wait until October....

Happy Crafting!