An idea was sparked, thanks to Pinterest, to make my own centerpieces. I wanted to be able to use something that could be recycled & like the tall look of wine bottles. So began the collection. I had friends alerting me every time they finished a bottle & teachers throwing boxes into my mom's car. We successfully made it passed 100 clear and green bottles with a couple months to spare. Then began the experiments with designs and label removing. And setting them on sliced up tree slabs, was a nice finish, because they came from my parents recently chopped down tree.
Label Removing
Not really an easy task, probably the longest step in this whole process. I started by literally just letting them soak in water and then scraping off the label and using Goo Gone. This took forever. Then my cousin saved me, without knowing it, by pinning a label removal solution.
It requires:
Hot water
Dishsoap
Vinegar
Baking Soda
Prepare the hot water with dishsoap & then add in baking soda & vinegar to get the bubbling effect. Drop in the bottles and let them soak. Many of the labels came off quickly or with a little scraping. If any residue was left, I'd use Goo Gone and get the last of it.
Drying
This takes a bit, because the water gets inside, so let it dry over night before doing any decorating.
Decorating
This was my favorite part, the tough stuff was done & I was free to create.
Glitter Bottles
These may sound like a glitter disaster that will leave glitter all around your house, but trust me this is not the case. They are very simple & add a nice pop to the collection.
Needs:
Bottle of Pledge floor wax
Bottle of fine glitter
Step 1: Using Pledge floor wax squirt a good amount into the bottle & swirl it around. Make sure you get the entire bottle covered. *Make sure you don't shake it, you don't want bubbles!* Then dump the extra out into a plastic cup.
Step 2: Dump a lot glitter into the bottle & swirl it around until the entire inside is covered. Then dump the extra glitter out into a container.
It's that simple! And it's efficient, it only let's the amount of glitter it needs to cover the wet floor wax & then it dries pretty quickly.
At the wedding, these became a nice little source of light, we dropped in LED lights & they caused the bottles to glow.
Jute & Pearl Bottles
This design is nice because each one looks different, you can be more heavy on the jute at the beginning and end or you can be more heavy on the beads. This is yours to adjust.
Needs:
Roll of Jute (I got the thinnest I could at the craft store)
Plastic pearl beads (with openings big enough for the jute you get)
Step 1: String the beads onto the jute. I did about 50 beads at a time. Do this before cutting it off the roll, so then you get keep going on the project without having to string on more beads.
Step 2: Knot the starting end of the jute & pull a bead up to the knot & glue it on to the bottle where you'd like to start the wrap. I always just put the hot glue on the bead, it had the most surface area & less of a chance me burning my finger when placing it on the bottle.
Step 3: Continue wrapping around the bottle, gluing a bead on at your desired frequency. I typically used 2-3 each time around the bottle. But how many you want is your choice.
Canvas & Lace Bottles
Easiest of them all, because you can buy this already put together on a roll at a craft store in the ribbon section.
Step 1: Cut the ribbon to the length you need it.
Step 2: Hot glue the end & wrap it around. Really doesn't take much more glue than just doing the 2 ends, plus you don't want it to push through the canvas, so keep in minimal.
One final note, to add a
*pop* of color every once & a while I would wrap my wedding colored ribbon around the top, just so it looked a bit different on the tables. I also was able to get a JUMBO sized wine bottle for my head table which I glittered, wrapped in ribbon & then used the my Cricut to cut our a vinyl letter and made it a personalized decoration for us.
For my sign, I wanted something to be on there permanently & I wanted the ability to rotate the message for different timeframes. So I came up with the idea of getting our name on there & then the rest was a chalkboard.
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