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!

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!

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!

What's Up Wednesday

Well today I don't have any messy projects going for a Wacky Wednesday, so I thought I'd just tell you what I've been up to lately. It's a What's Up Wednesday!

I made almost a dozen egg ornaments yesterday, so there are new eggs in my shop! Here is a picture of my favorite one:

Fading Cheshire Cat from Alice's Adventures In Wonderland Egg Ornament

I've also been playing around with spray paint ideas since we've had a few warm days in a row here. Maybe I'll bring out the spray paints tomorrow if its warm in the morning. I also need to hunt around some specialty paint shops in town for a few specific colors I need =) I have several ideas for stencils and reverse stencils for spray painting that I need to have made before I can take on any big spray paint projects.

And coming soon to my Etsy shop: A Photography section! I'll be ordering my new camera and photo printer this weekend and I'm so excited to have be able to take pictures again! And this will be my first photo printer so I'm sure it'll be an adventure figuring out how to use!

In other news, I'm in the process of figuring out what I need to make.... Wine Bottle Tiki Torches! I'm excited to get everything here so I can make a few test tiki torches for myself and my family!

I have so many projects going right now, I really need to slow down and do one at a time, but that's just not the way my artistic creativity works! I hope all your artistic projects are going fantastic as well!