Mosaics - First time with glass on glass

In an effort to remember (and not repeat) the mistakes and quirks in my first few mosaics, I'm going to start posting what I made to show what went wrong and/or what I'd do differently next time. This post is about some partially completed projects started in a fun glass on glass class (held via zoom). The instructor went over the basics (and I didn't listen as well as I could have) so I can now show examples of why she's 100% right with her tips and instructions.
This is approx. my 8th mosaic project, but my first glass on glass. So the big thing I did wrong was applying glue to the substrate, rather than the tesserae as instructed. Doing this caused bubbles and gaps, where there is no glue, or not enough glue under the piece of glass. It's quite hard to remove the piece to try to get more glue under it (much different from placing glass in thinset). I also didn't look at the piece without the paper pattern until the next day, which highlights the bubbles, when it was too late to fix anything.
TIP: Put glue on the back of each piece of glass (don't skimp) before placing it down. Then look at it closely, press it down and see that the bubbles disappear. If they don't press harder or wiggle the piece around (maybe you can drag the bubble out from underneath).
First project: Sonoran bumble bee 
I like the glass colors, textures, and shapes I cut for the bee. The two things I'd do differently on the design would be cutting more in the darker mauve (radiating cuts out as I had in the paper pattern) to make it more flower like (rather than a blob). And there's one radiating cut on the lighter color that I should have continued down to the center (just to the right of the bees head). It looks OK now but the shape will look funny after grouting. 

Second project: Peridot sweat bee
I love the colors. Playing with the glass made me feel like I understand why jewelry makers enjoy their work. All glass was back buttered (glue applied to each piece of glass individually) and so no bubbles. The only thing I wish I had done differently at this point was I wish I made the wings the same color as the legs. A lot more work to be done on this... also have to decide if the antennae will be wing color or leg color.