Sunday, March 25, 2012

Spring Photos!

Just thought I'd share I few photo's of spring in my area taken with my Canon EOS Rebel T2i.

Spring time chicks and daffodils!

Chicks and Daffodils

Chicks and Daffodils

Tulips are coming up!

Peeking out of the ground

Kiba is all smiles in the sun.

Hen and Chicks

Sunshine
Karma with her wonderful different colored eyes.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Glass Vase's

Now that you have all those clean wine bottles, what do you do with them?

Here are some of the things I've been doing:














You can see most of these items for sale in the Glass section of my Etsy shop!

Enjoy!

Friday, March 23, 2012

Upcycled Wine Bottles - Getting Those Labels Off 2.0!

I realized in my post the other day I left out something important; not all wine bottles have glued on labels! So what do you do when the next wine bottle you want to use has a label or barcode like this:







Since these labels are painted on it's easy to think you can't use them, either because you want just clear glass or because the label is so thick it'll show up even painted over. Well here is my little secret to getting painted labels and barcodes off bottles:

Vinegar!

Any white vinegar will do, this is just what I happened to have on hand. Here's how you do it:

Fill your sink or a pan with vinegar.

Place the bottle in a leave it to set for awhile. I 
like to work on other crafty things while waiting.

Since the vinegar wont be reusable (unless you can pour it back into the bottle)
 it's a good idea to save up bottles and do a whole bunch at a time.

You can test the bottle labels by wiping with a sponge.
If the label doesn't wipe away easily let it soak longer.

Here is the difference after about 3 minutes soaking.

Vinegar will also take any use by dates off if they are painted on.

Here the use by date has been wiped off.

Here is a bottle with the label, and one with the label 
wiped off.

Here you can see half the plane and wine name wiped away.

Once you wipe the label away, rinse the bottle with warm
water and dry it off. If the bottle is not rinsed, the vinegar will
dry on it with paint flecks and it will look dirty. If this happens
the bottle will need to be re-soaked in vinegar and wiped off again.

Now your bottle is ready to be turned into a beautiful piece of art!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Upcycled Wine Bottles - Getting Those Labels Off!

Ever looked at someone's upcycled wine bottle vase, or cut bottles made into glasses and thought 'Hey, I could do that!' So you save up some bottles, and one day you bring them out, ready to make something. You take them over to the sink to peel off the label and.... two hours later find yourself still peeling. I've been there, and I've tried everything to get the labels off. From using Goof Off, to hot water, to steaming the label, but none of these seem to work 100% of the time. Today I thought I'd show you how I get labels off of everything.

My secret is:


Yup, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, or any other brand of melamine foam cleaning sponge. Here's how I clean my bottles.

I get out a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Sponge,

Front
Spend a few seconds peeling off what I can off the label,

Back
Then I fill up the sink,

And run the label under the water.

Then I scrape the label with my thumb to get down to the glue.

This also gives more surface area for the sponge to reach.

Get the Magic Eraser wet,

And wash the label area, using pressure to get the glue off.

When finished before draining the sink clean all the label gunk out.

The label.

The bottle will be all clean! It takes about 2 minutes per bottle.

It will use up the sponge quite quickly, but it saves so much time peeling labels
that it's worth it for me to buy the sponges.

I hope this helps you complete your wine bottle project!