Upcycled Fall Bottle Vases

Thanks to the mocha Frappuccino drinkers in my house, we always have a bunch of empty bottles around. And by a bunch, I mean A BUNCH. They’re cool bottles, and I hate throwing them in the recycle bin, so I’m always trying to find things to do with them. This year I decided to turn some of them into seasonal decor, and this is my first project. Although it didn’t start out that way, I became determined to complete the project without buying anything. I had a lot of fun with it!

Supplies:

4 glass bottles, cleaned with labels removed

Spray paint

Washi tape

Cardstock

Tacky glue

Scissors

As I said, we have a whole lot of Starbucks bottles waiting to be recycled or upcycled, so I used four of them. I really like the shape of them. Aldi actually has their own similar drink in a similar bottle—except theirs is round. I have a few of those that I plan to use for a holiday project later on, and one thing I especially like about them is that their label is just a plastic wrap. No messy adhesive to deal with. You can use whatever kinds of bottles you have!

To paint the bottles you can brush on regular acrylics or use spray paint. I had some different spray paints to choose from, and spray painting is quicker, so I went that route. It took a few coats, but I think they turned out really pretty in the end.

Originally I was going to wrap the bottles in ribbon, and I found a lot of pretty options, but ultimately I decided to use washi tape. Goodness knows I have a ton of it, and after much debate and indecision, I finally decided on some that I thought looked good together. If you’d prefer ribbon, by all means use it. If you don’t have a collection of washi tape, craft stores keep it in the paper crafting area, and you can even buy some on Amazon.

For the letters, I considered a few options. My top two were vinyl and cardstock, both of which I can cut with my Silhouette Cameo. Ultimately I went with cardstock, and I love it. I ended up using the copper cardstock left over from my HOME sign project. I love that stuff so much that I’ll be using it every chance I get.

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Let’s get started!

First you want to make sure your bottles are clean with all of the labels and adhesive removed. For my bottles, I had to peel off the sticky labels, but then I was left with a lot of adhesive. Goo Gone to the rescue! I used the spray-on version, and it is amazing. You just spray it on, let it sit for a few minutes, and wipe off the residue! After that I ran them through the dishwasher, and my bottles were good to go.

Next you can paint your bottles. Once I finally had a non-windy day (I did this the same day as my plastic egg acorns), I took my bottles outside to spray paint them. Even without the wind I managed to spray paint the patio and side of the house, but I eventually got all four bottles painted. (There’s actually a good lesson in there: wipe your nozzle clean after you paint, and then check it the next time you use it to make sure it isn’t clogged.) I don’t know if I was supposed to prime the bottles or anything, but I didn’t and it worked fine. You could always spray with a clear coat if you want to make sure to protect your paint.

Once the paint dries you can add your washi tape. The nice thing about washi tape is that you can peel it off and readjust it until you like the way it looks. First I decided which side I wanted to be the front of the bottle. Then I started wrapping my tape. I used five different patterns of tape, and I wrapped them around the bottle right up against each other. I wrapped one piece around the bottle and decided how long I needed it to be, and then I stuck it on the edge of my desk so I could measure the other pieces of tape against it as I was cutting them. The edges of some of the tape peeled up a bit, so I used a little Tacky glue to hold them down. To make sure my tape was even on all of the bottles, I set my first finished bottle next to the second one as I was laying out the top piece of tape. I held the tape across both of them before pressing it down on the second bottle. Not only did that ensure that the tape was even height wise, it also meant that the tape was pretty straight on the second bottle.

Now it’s time to add the letters! I used my Cameo to cut them out, and I used Tacky glue to attach them. My letters ended up being about 2” wide, and I could have gone a little smaller, but I don’t think I’d want to go any bigger. At least not for these sort of squared-off bottles. I used a thin layer of glue, but I covered all of the letters to make sure they stayed put. Tacky glue takes a little bit of time to take hold, so I held the letters in place for a few minutes until they were secure.

You certainly don’t have to fill your bottles, but you can if you want to. I found a bunch of dried out fall-looking plants in my yard that I used to fill my bottles. Dried grasses and weeds, basically. If you don’t have access to things like that, you could find all sorts of pretty faux flowers at the craft store instead. What says “fall” to you?

If you like this project, you can do it again for other holidays or seasons! I’m thinking JOY for Christmas, but I also considered NOEL or HOPE. Maybe I’ll make some bottles to spell LOVE for Valentine’s Day. And/or maybe SNOW for January! Even as I type this I’m coming up with new ideas. Boo for Halloween?! I might have an entire collection by this time next year. If you have any ideas, please let me know!

Happy crafting!