This month’s project is fun! I’ve saved up a few of those small airplane-sized wine bottles because I always thought they’d make cute bud vases. I could see them all lined up on the windowsill, sun streaming in, little wildflowers or even silk flowers peeking out of the top...
Well, when I finally set myself to the task, I realized the labels wouldn’t come off easily, so I was met with a challenge. Has this ever happened to you? I had intended to stamp on the glass and paint with glass paints, but with the label not coming off, I knew I’d have to come up with another solution. I decided to cover the bottle label with my own papers and glitz it up with wire and beads.
STEP 1: My prep work began by spraying layers of deli paper with Color Mists from Outside the Margins. These are sprayable water colors in very yummy colors. I placed a stack of deli paper on my worktable and started spraying, light colors first. I placed a silk flower petal, pulled from a silk flower stem, on the deli paper and sprayed around that for a mask effect. You can speed up the drying process with a heat gun.
STEP 2: Mix a solution of Elmer’s Glue and water to use for collaging the deli papers onto the bottle. You can also use Mod Podge. Tear the parts of the papers you want to use; here I chose the yellow-orange-red deli papers I made. The deli paper is nice and thin, so it’s a bit transparent and very easy to manipulate. You can even smooth out the wrinkles if you want. Here’s a photo of one layer of deli paper.
STEP 3: As you can see, I left my wrinkles because I liked the texture. Here’s a photo of a few layers of paper collaged onto the bottle. Once you have all of the layers you desire, let the bottle dry thoroughly.
STEP 4: The next step is to stamp on the bottle! Lay your background stamp, face up, on your work surface. Ink the stamp with black StazOn ink. Starting at the end of the stamp, carefully lay the bottle down and roll it, like you would a rolling pin, across the stamp. If the pattern doesn’t meet end to end around the bottle, it’s ok, that can be the back! Let the ink dry.
STEP 5: Using thick tacky glue, adhere flat-backed glass marbles (the kind you find in the craft store floral department) to the bottle as you desire. I put a row at the bottom of the bottle and just below the neck of the bottle. Let the glue dry thoroughly before moving on to the next step.
STEP 6: The next step is the really fun part. I don’t profess to be a big wiring/beading gal, but I like to dabble a little, making little curlicues and the like. And personally, I think it’s easy to wrap wire a few times around the neck of a bottle.
I started out by wrapping the wire randomly around the neck of the bottle until I liked the look I had. I did this a few times, starting at different spots on the bottle neck. Twist the ends together and with the tails, use round pliers to make little curls.
On some of the wires, as I was wrapping, I threaded small glass beads on the wire and kept wrapping. Another alternative is to thread the beads onto the tail of your wire and crimp or curl the end so they’ll stay put.
STEP 7: Next, I made some twisted wire pieces using this rod that came in a wire kit I purchased at the craft store. You can achieve the same effect with a round chopstick or thin dowel. Remember that your twists will be as big as your dowel is wide. Wrap the wire around your tool, and at random spots, thread assorted beads onto the wire then keep twisting until you have the length you want.
Leave a bit of a tail and hook it over some of the wire that’s on your bottle neck. Twist the end to secure. Repeat with a shorter bit of wire and attach to the longer one.
That’s it! Wasn’t that fun? Now remember that this bottle is not waterproof, so if you put water in it for your flowers, be sure to rinse it out carefully.
Supply List
- Small Wine Bottle (Artist’s Own)
- Deli Paper (Outside the Margins)
- Color Mists (Outside the Margins)
- Heat Tool (Milwaukee)
- White Glue (Elmer’s)
- Paintbrush (Artist’s Own)
- Swirly Background Stamp (Stamp Camp)
- Jet Black StazOn Ink Pad (Tsukineko)
- Small Flat-backed Glass Pebbles (Michael’s)
- Thick Designer Tacky Glue (Aleene’s)
- Round Pliers (Fire Mountain)
- 20 Gauge Copper Wire (Anchor Wire)
- Twist N Curl (NSI Innovations)
To find the products mentioned in this article and shown in these layouts, check with your local scrapbook retailer. Browse our Premier Retail Stores for coupons to a store near you.
