This time last year

I guess it's that time of year when we take a look back to see what we've accomplished and how far we've come.

In this spirit I took a look at how many of you were hanging out with me this time last year...and it was just a fraction of all of you lovely new Etcetorizers. 

So, I thought this week would be a great time to recap some fun projects from last Christmas in case you missed them the first time around.  (Besides, I'm pretty worn out, and still have loads of things to do before the weekend.  So, it's time to recycle!)

First up ...  "Where's my wine glass?!?!"
(originally posted December 10, 2010)

Here's a fun and easy project to help keep everyones glass in it's place when you have your family over for the holidays.

If your family sits to the table for Christmas dinner this is a fun way to do name plates too to make sure everyone sits where they're supposed to.

I made these many years ago but when they went in the dishwasher a lot of the work that went into them was washed away.  Every year since then I've said I was going to redo them so we could use them again...and now I finally have!! 

Here are the supplies you'll need:

along with access to an oven

Steps:
1) Clean your wine glasses and dry.  Then paint each family members name onto the wine glasses.  I used a very fine and high quality paint brush to avoid frustration.

2) Now just paint a small picture of something christmassy onto the other side of each glass.  I like to do something unique for each one but you could make them all the same if you like that matchy matchy thing.

I also tried to mix it up a little.  Some glasses just have one larger image and others have a whole cluster of small images.  (Also, some look like my 4 year old nephew painted them and some turned out quite nice~)

3) Keeping in mind that I'm using "Paint and Bake" paint, once you have all of your glasses finished you now place them in a 300 degree oven for 20 minutes to bake.  Until the paint is baked it's water soluble and all of your artwork will be lost if washed.  Even though after they're baked they're supposed to be dishwasher safe, I recommend hand washing them.

4) After they've cooled down and the paint is set, the only thing left to do is to fill your glasses with some wine (or juice) and have a great night with your family.

I bought these paints off of the Home Shopping Channel in Canada ages and ages ago (I think maybe more than 10 years ago) and I can't find them online anymore.  However, they're a Tina Lewis product and she still regularly appears on the Shopping Channel as well as QVC and HSN.  I think these days she's more into scrapbooking though.  You can find her website here .  If you really like this project and can't find similar paint, email her and maybe she can tell you where to find the paints.  (I did a quick Google search on Paint and Bake and found a site that tells you how to do it with regular acrylic paint but I would be cautious and do some more research first)

**Added: Martha Stewart debuted a new line of paints in 2011 which includes glass paints!

You can always find my past tutorials on the tutorials tab up top.  I've completed a new craft almost every week for the past year and a bit so there are loads of fun and easy ideas and projects to try~

Don't forget to link up your Christmassy crafts to this weeks Make it Great Monday link party!