Painted Wine Bottles

I saw these beauties on Pinterest recently. 






















(Unfortunately, I was unable to find the link again so I can't link back to the creator. If you know, please email me a link, would ya? I'd 'per-she-ate it!)

With my upcoming nuptials, I'd wanted to spend some time at least attempting to recreate the magic. We ended up hiring a local gal to deal with our flowers and centerpieces, so the pressure is off. But I still wanted to give them a try.

I started by gathering some wine bottles. Last summer a coworker asked me to collect a certain color/type of bottle for her wedding, and I mentioned it to our local liquor store owner, who began saving all of the wine bottles for me.  I still have boxes of assorted bottles and haven't brought myself to dump them in recycling because I just know there is something I can do with them.

What shape and size you choose depends on what makes your boat float. Do you want them all exactly the same? Or do you prefer the mixed up look?  I went with different ones, myself.

Start by soaking them in hot water. This helps to remove the labels later and also gets rid of the alcohol smell.

Now, there is a dangerous obstacle laying across the path to naked wine bottles. Most capped wines will have a metal collar around the neck. This is what attaches the cap to the bottle. Removing this collar can be a bit of a bear. How you go about doing so is up to you. Use your best judgment and make sure you take the proper safety precautions before you begin.

Once the labels and collar have been removed and your bottles are clean and dry, I set them up for their first coat of paint.

I chose two similar colors to the original project. A bold yellow to match my sunflowers, and a copper to go over it.  I was holding onto the neck of the bottles as I sprayed them, so I didn't get the tops, but I'm not concerned with those as I'll probably end up wrapping them when all is said and done.

*Confession: I felt really bad about jacking up these beautiful bottles. They really are quite pretty when they are naked. Spraying them with banana yellow paint was marginally painful for me.

Once the paint dried, I wrapped them each with different sized rubber bands.

Then sprayed them again with the second color. I chose a Valspar Metallic 'Copper' spray for this second coat.

Now they are starting to look like something!

I opted to wrap the necks versus finishing them. I chose some straw colored yarn to wrap one, and some leftover twine rope from my DIY Cat Scratcher project to wrap the other one. I wasn't sure what kind of look I'd want. I had to separate the rope's three strands into one, otherwise it was way too thick.

My trusty Modge Podge was used to hold the yarn to the bottle.

The yarn ends up being my preferred wrap. It gives a much smoother, finished look while the rope might be a little too rustic for the bottle.

 When all is said and done... Well, I loooove them. I may still find a way to throw them into our wedding festivities. I get a sunny, accomplished feeling everytime I look at them.

This project was very simple and cost almost nothing. I already had the bottles, bands, Modge Podge, yarn and rope. Most of you probably already have a stock of spray paint as well. The only thing I had to buy for this was the Copper spray paint.

*For those of you with a sharp eye who may have noticed that a bottle went missing, let me explain. I didn't mess it up, in case that was your first thought! I only had enough rubber bands for two bottles at a time, so bottle #3 has remained a step behind these two and didn't finish in time for their photo shoot.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mom's out there!  Whether you're a mom to 2-leggeds or 4-leggeds, whether they are covered in skin or scales or fur, today is your day so get outside and do something for YOU!

Emily


Linking up to these great parties!