Painting on pebbles

My new hobby started this year, after my kids gave me acrylic pants and brushes for Christmas 2016 and my birthday in 2017. I found out that I can make copies and that there is a lot of interesting designs on Pinterest. So here are my results so far:

Addition to my collection of small figurines

Today was a day of multiple cute and totally inexpensive finds at the Lambertville flea market. Here they are, after a good wash, modeling for a photoshoot. The scale is in inches.

Green Turtle, possibly a Hagen-Renaker figurine

Small Duckling, possibly a Hagen-Renaker figurine

Turtle, from Ivory Coast,  a flea market find

Owl, Hagen-Renaker

Fox, Hagen-Renaker

Kangoroo, Hagen-Renaker

Bunny, Hagen-Renaker

Turtle Brooch

Cat Brooch

The figurine below is from Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts:

Green Turtle

This one was a gift from my daughter Olesya, a key-hiding turtle:

Metal Turtle with removable armor

Metal Turtle assembled

This figurine was a gift from my daughter Antoniya, an Easter Bunny from Villeroy and Boch store:

Easter Bunny painting a lady bug

Decorating backyard fence with toy birdhouses

I saw a similar idea in HGTV tutorial, and was hooked up.

Somehow it ended up being one of my longest projects. I bought the first birdhouses back in 2015, thinking that in spring everything will be painted and on the fence. But procrastination won, or maybe I lost interest to the idea. The unpainted birdhouses moved into the basement. After the winter of 2016 the idea kind of came back, and I finally started doing it in the spring of 2016. I was painting outdoors, using spray paint, and it took time because of the rainy weather in April and May. Also all the small details that had to be painted separately took their time.

I also have a dozen of almost finished painted tin cans, a couple of them were planted with succulents today. I bought a sedum tile at the nursery, it is drought-tolerant, so even in the small containers the succulents will not dry out.

Sedum,  succulents of different colors

The fence before adding birdhouses

Long painting process

On Memorial Day weekend Tosha came to visit us and helped me. Here we are, adding the polyurethane protective layer.

Birdhouses and tin cans painted and hung

Small Garden in a Glass Bowl, or Fairy Garden

I was inspired by the post found on Pinterest, from http://mrs-ferguson.blogspot.hu/2012/02/magical-forest-in-jar.html.  

Almost everything was already in hand - the bowl, the deer and hedgehog figurines, the small stones and vegetation from my houseplants. The moss came from the backyard. 

The only thing remaining were those mushrooms. I used some acorns and white color inserts for the screws.

I glued the screw inserts into the acorn caps and painted them with the nail polish, adding white dots after they dried out. The drying stand was made out of toilet paper tube, slighly flattened with small holes for the inserts added.

The project was quick to make, and I like the final result!

First Mushroom Added

All Three Mushrooms Added

Close-Up of Mushrooms

The hedgehog looks nice there, too!

Addition to the turtles collection

Latest Additions:

Small planter, was sold with the ivy plant in it.

This one has inside  a sachet filled with potpurri
that smells like vanilla and lavender

Stone one, heavy

The shell is made of colorful butterflies

MY COLLECTION: TURTLES, BIG AND SMALL

Below is my collection of turtles figurines that I started almost 10 years ago.  Some of them were  flea market finds, some of them were bought at the stores or art shows, many of them were given by my friends. After they realized that I collect turtles, knowing about it made their life easier - many of small figurines came to my house as gifts.

The "moving turtles" series: the head and the legs
are suspended and move all the time.

Almost identical pair otf turtles, different color.

Tiny cute little thing

Back  view

Belly view -  upside down

I have several of  those, made of sea shells - from different
sea vacations, but mainly they are gifts from friends.

Gift from my daughter, brought from Donetsk

Gift from my friend Svetlana, brought from St.Maarten

Gift from my friend

A beautiful little one

This one has a compas inside.
From Lahaska, Peddler Village.

From Chinese market - if you carry it with you,
you will live a long life

This is a little box with magnetic closure,
you can lift the back up

Stone Pendant

Turtle-photographer, gift from my friend Svetlana

Small clock

Onyx Turtle

Glass turtle - gift from a friend

Cell phone pendant

Another turtle-box

Sea Turtle

From the Redwoods National Park.
The back of the turtle is made of sequoia wood.

Little pendant

Close-up

Close-up

Haagen-Dazs Miniature

Close-up

Tiny small turtle, made by a sculptor from Connecticut
(met him at the art show)

This one is a brooch - flee market find

One more from the art show in Morristown Armory, NJ

Brought from Petra, Jordan

One more broouch, a flea market find

Plastic one, from the toy store Jazams in Princeton 

Chinatown, New York - another one with a compas inside.
This time the compas is real.

Silver ring, bought at the art show.
You can open it and keep your secret stash inside.

Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts Store

Key chain - brought from Israel

Stuffed toy brought from Munich, Germany.

From Asburry Park. We stopped at the store when we went
to see the Polar Bears plunge on the first day of the
New Year 2014.  Nice Christmas Tree decoration.

Gift from my friend Natalia

Key chain

Glass weight

Candle in a turtle figurine