Tutorial #1, Peace Bottles

PINTEREST PROJECT NUMBER ONE

Wow. This one has been mucho fun in spite of repeated trips to the hardware store.

My Pin appears here.

I tried to trace the pin back to the tutorial. Couldn’t find it. Found lots of pics, lots of tutorials, but not one exactly like this.

So this is my take:

Materials

3 Bottles (I used DaVinci syrup bottles since I had those on hand)

½” Glass and Tile Drill Bit

Drill

Letters

• Vinyl Stick-on Letters as suggested in the Pin Tutorial

OR

• 24# Bond Paper and a Printer, Xacto Knife, Re-positionable Adhesive

Silver Spray Paint

Green Spray Glitter

Clear Sealer

3 Strands 20 Count Miniature Lights

Trim

5’ Ribbon

6 Silver Bells

6 Buttons

3 – 6” pieces Holiday Greenery (I cut mine from Garland)

Glue

• Begin by removing labels from bottles.

Soak the bottles in hot, soapy water for an hour or so. I found this helpful in removing the first layers of paper. Then I started scraping with my handy-dandy scraper and a bottle of Goo Gone. If you have a better method, please share.

• Drill the holes.

Choose the back of  a clean, dry bottle and a spot about ½’ up from the bottom.  Make sure you are leaving room for any indentations in the bottom of the bottle. Fit your bit into your drill, add safety glasses and a mask, take your time. You don’t want to break your bottles.  And Drill. Take it from me, find the ½” bit. Even a slightly smaller bit will not work. Our local large home improvement stores did not have the ½”.  I found the bit at a local hardware store. You might want to call ahead and inquire.

Don’t you just love that work table? It’s a much-used, well-loved relic.

Let me repeat: take your time in drilling. You will see some smoking.  Stop occasionally and allow the bit and glass to cool.

• Rinse the dust from your bottles and allow to dry again.

• Make your letters and position on bottles.

I used the Cooper Black font in size 185 printed on 24# bond and trimmed  with an Xacto blade. Use a re-positionable adhesive to affix to bottles.

• Spray bottles with silver paint.

Use 2 or 3 light coats and follow manufacturer’s label directions. I don’t recommend any particular paint. The one I used was NOT a good choice. I will probably just find an inexpensive generic silver for my next venture into this crafty endeavor.

• Remove letters.

The Xacto blade was most helpful in lifting the letters off. If there is an adhesive residue, you’ll want to clean that gently.

• Spray glitter onto bottles.

Use an even spray. Repeat.

• Spray sealer onto glittered bottles.

One coat is probably sufficient. I used two.

• Insert light strand.

This is the reason you drilled a ½” hole!

• Make and affix trim.

• Make 3 little bows. Great tutorial here.

As you watch the video, you will see that she uses some sort of tacky fixative to hold her ‘posts’. I used a block of floral styrofoam and 2 pencils. It was what I had on hand

Pass ends of ribbon over a candle flame to stop fraying  or use a commercial product if you have one lying around your craft cave.

For each bottle:

• Cut a 14-15” pieces of ribbon.
• String 2 silver bells onto ribbon.
• Pull ribbon through two buttons and around greenery.
• Twist ends of greenery around bottle neck
• Glue bows to buttons

Plug them in and you are done.

Now wasn’t that easy?

Sorry about the picture quality. It’s the Learning Curve.

Please share pics of your project! If you have any questions, please ask in the comments and I will get back to you.

Thanks for stopping by. This one bears repeating.