How to Make Bottle Crafts

Turn your old wine bottles into decorations.

If you have old bottles laying around your house, you can recycle them by making easy, fun crafts. Everything from wine bottles to plastic soda bottles can be reused and turned into a pretty craft or educational product. Your old bottles can be turned into decoration or even a useful addition to your garden. Gather a group of girlfriends or recruit your kids to help you convert junk into a unique project.

Things You'll Need

• Wine bottle
• Cork
• Plastic 2-liter bottle
• Tissue paper
• Decoupage
• Paintbrush
• Colored marbles
• Flat marble stone
• 20-gauge craft wire
• Beads
• Hot glue gun
• Razor
• Scissors
• Nail
• 12-inch wooden dowel
• Cord
• Birdseed
• String
• Small bell
• Stickers

Instructions

Decorative Wine Bottle

1. Wash the wine bottle thoroughly. Remove the label using a razor blade, and then soak the bottle in warm water with soap.

2. Scrunch tissue paper into several small pieces. Brush decoupage onto the wine bottle and stick the bits of tissue paper onto the decoupage. Coat the tissue paper with decoupage.

3. Glue marbles onto the wine bottle using your hot glue gun. You can continue decorating the bottle with spirals of craft wire. To make spirals, wind the wire around a pencil.

Bird Feeder

1. Poke holes through the sides of the plastic bottle, on the bottom. Make sure the holes are directly across from each other since a dowel will be snaked through the holes in order to create a bird perch.

2. Cut a "U" shape into the bottle, 2 inches higher than the holes for the perch on both sides of the bottle. Bend each U-shaped cut outward.

3. Poke two holes through the bottom of the bottle's neck. This will be for the hanger.

4. Pour birdseed into the feeder and screw the cap on the top of the bottle. Hang the feeder outside for birds to access.

Bells

1. Cut off the bottom two-thirds of the bottle using a scissor.

2. Create a hole that goes through the bottle cap.

3. Tie the bell to a string and snake the string through the hole in the bottle cap. Tie a large knot at the top so that the string doesn't fall through the cap.

4. Decorate the bottle using stickers or markers.

Tips & Warnings

• Your decorated wine bottle can simply be used as decoration or you can pour anything from scented oils and bath soaps to vinegar into them for later use. Screw on a top that dispenses liquids for easy use.

References

• Crafts For All Seasons: Decorated Wine Bottle
• Easy Child Crafts: Recycled Crafts for Kids
• A Home for Wild Birds: Soda Bottle Bird Feeder