Glass bottle vases and plastic bottle flowers

Last summer, I did some crafting on glass bottles and vases. I love glass as a material. I like shiny and glamorous things :) (although I am sure you wouldn't guess that if you saw me)

Lets start with the shiniest of them all. I used glass gems on this one. These glass gems come in a variety of colors at any craft store. I first sorted the gems by their color.

I also cleaned the bottle. I removed the label, washed and dried it beforehand. I used some rubbing alcohol to clean the outside of the bottle before gluing the gems on. A clean surface is highly recommended for any glass craft.

I did not want to cover the bottle entirely with the gems and wanted some of the beautiful color of the bottle itself to peek through. I drew a design on the bottle with a marker to roughly mark where I need to leave out the gemstones. I tried to keep the lines equidistant but I am not good with measuring and straight lines. I just tried my best. I glued the gem stones starting from the bottom of the bottle to the top.

I used Goop Glue and I am very happy with the result. It sticks well and the bottle held up well even in a long flight.

The next one was a vase. I didn't really have a solid plan with this one. I just went with the flow. I first painted stripes on the vase in a few different colors (I used glass colors). Again, the stripes are not equal in size due to my problem with measuring. But I think it adds to the look :)

I thought the colors looked too bright. Specially for the rustic look with the rocks that I eventually planned for it. So, I did a really light coat of white paint all over the rounded part of the vase. I left the bottom and top natural borders of the vase as is. I then drew a random scroll design on the vase and used my favorite Goop glue to glue some river rocks on the vase.

How beautifully do the flowers compliment the vase!

For the last bottle, I decided to use sand. I thought of making a tree design with sand and river rocks.

First, I needed green sand for the tree. To color sand, I mixed some green food coloring (I used wilton gel color) into the sand with the help of a little bit of water. Make the sand a couple of shades darker than you want because it will lighten up later. I spread the sand on a baking tray and let the sand dry out for about 10 minutes in a 200F oven. Leave it out overnight to dry.
Meanwhile, I drew the tree shape on the bottle with a marker and glued river rocks along the bottom of the bottle with Goop glue. To glue the sand, I thinned out white craft glue with some water and brushed it on the bottle, working in small sections. Then, I sprinkled sand over the glue and shook off the excess. This gave me a very light coating of sand. I repeated the process two more times, giving me three layers of sand. I then sealed the sand by brushing on thinned glue on top. Do not use your best brush for this. The sand gets into the brush which you can wash off but its best to avoid your favorite brush. I also did some lines on the bark part of the tree with a black glass paint outliner.

This one is not really a glass bottle craft. It is a plastic bottle craft. I had seen the bottoms of plastic soda bottles cut out and shaped like flowers on the internet, ofcourse. When I saved enough plastic bottles, I cut out the bottoms and shaped them into flowers. I punched holes on the top and bottom of the flowers to allow threading them on metal jewelry wire. I also glued a couple of acrylic gems in the middle of the flowers. I then hung a couple of jingle bells at the bottom of the jewelry wire and threaded the plastic flowers on the wire. I created a loop on top to hang it. This is currently hanging outdoors in my mom's garden. I think this is perfect to hang outdoors for some decoration.