I have about ten empty wine bottles and would love a crafty way to reuse them. I was thinking of using dishwashing liquid and putting the bottles on my windowsill, but what kind of "top" would I use? Any suggestions would be appreciated. (I'm starting to look like a lush.)
Terese from North Carolina
At my local Dogwood Festival last year, they were selling lighted decorated wine bottles. What they did was drill a small hole near the bottom of the bottle, run 1 string of white Christmas lights through the hole leaving enough of the cord sticking out so that it could be plugged in. The decor on the bottles they had was painted on but you could always cover with decals. Marla (03/18/2005)
By Marla Ball
You can put hand dishwashing liquid in the bottle(s) and buy a stopper top for the bottles, sold for pouring out liquors in little doses. It is a small pour spout w/ a screw-in stopper bottom to fit the bottle, plastic. Ask at a place that sells wines, etc. (03/18/2005)
By kidsNclutter
A friend made me a bottle for the bathroom that has bubble bath in it. It is a wine bottle with some hand painted flowers on it and one of those pour spouts like is used for the top on liquor bottles. It is so nice looking in my bathroom. I was told it was so easy to make and I really appreciated a home made gift. (03/18/2005)
By Carol
Why not give your kitchen an Italian look. Fill several of your wine bottles with olive oil and herbs. Just push the herbs of your choice in the bottles then fill with olive oil. You can do the same with vinegar. Vinegar with red and green jalapeno peppers looks very pretty. Just put the original cork in the top or purchase some new corks. You could fill others with different colored pastas. The possibilities is endless. (03/18/2005)
By Klr2080
I have used wine bottles and matching glasses for decorating by using an etching solution and contact paper. Cut out the picture, words, etc. and apply to bottle and apply etching solution per directions, remove contact paper and you have a very pretty bottle. If it is filled with fluid some look nicer, too.
Liquor bottle pour tops do work well if you find ones to fit, the plastic ones seem to be more versatile and have more choices if you are trying to color coordinate. (03/19/2005)
By Barbie
Empty wine bottles can be used for almost any dry household ingredient such as coffee creamer, sugar, dry dishwasher crystals, bath salts, and even rice! They make nice bud vases and candle holders, as well. We also use the wine corks for decorating by placing the corks in a clear wine bucket or spreading them around a center piece during a dinner party. Try pinning name plates in the top of the wine cork on miniature bottles of wine for your dinner guests! (04/03/2005)
By Lorebur
I found a nice way to use the wine bottles for gift/crafts. Use a 1/2 inch tile cutting drill bit and drill a hole in the bottom of the glass. Fill it with white Christmas string lights and glass beads. Then tie wire edged ribbon at the top. (preferably dark toned wine bottles). Then buy the nice glass wine corks. These turn out beautiful and make great gifts for people's kitchens. (12/06/2005)
By Dana J
I am Paul from India. I liked the idea of giving used bottles. You can place house model into the bottle and gift it. Here in India we make houses in bottles to sell as fund raising tool for physically handicapped people. (02/10/2006)
By Paul S
With clear wine and liquor bottles you can fill them with water and empty the ink out of different colored highlighters into each bottle. It looks pretty sweet if you display it with blacklight or some other illumination. (02/15/2006)
By Jord
I love empty wine bottles. But I did read the one idea of filling them with herbs. That is a great idea, but make sure all of the herbs and spices are totally dried, if you plan on using the olive oil that is. If you are just doing it for decoration, then do whatever you like. But I have used dried items with my olive oil, and they came out great. I used sun dried tomatoes, dried garlic, dried basil, parsley, pepper corns, dried chilies, juniper berries, rosemary, and lots more. They come out so yummy. You can leave them in up to a year or more, but after you open it, put it in the fridge. (02/17/2006)
By Lisa Helmuth
I forgot to add, the reason for making sure the herbs and spices are totally dried, is because you could have a mold or some other kind of bacteria growing in it. (02/17/2006)
By Lisa Helmuth
Why not fill them with colored sand and set them around your house, on a shelf, or on top of your microwave cart, etc. (02/17/2006)
By imaqt1962
I wash my empty wine bottles in the dishwasher then let them air dry. I get a large bottle of dishwashing liquid (yellow in color) and pour it to almost the neck of the bottle. I get silk flowers and insert 1 or 2 stems inside the bottle and this turns into a decorative dishwashing dispenser or just sit it on the window sill. I use corks and get decorative plastic ornaments to stick into cork or hot glue it to the top of the cork. (04/24/2006)
By Darlene H.
A friend of mine would save a whole bunch, clean them, and section off a part of her garden where she would insert the bottle upside down next to each other about 1 inch to 2 inches apart. This makes for an interesting mosaic effect with the different colored bottles. Not sure how they hold up through winter though. Also would be leary if there was heavy traffic especially with kids. Probably best for decorative use. (07/08/2006)
By Karen
I paint empty wine bottles, however I do not drill a hole in mine. I feed the lights through the open top and use a cork to close the top. (12/29/2006)
By Debe
To drill hole in bottle, make sure the drill has enough rpm's to do the job. A Dremel 35,000 RPM is capable of cutting it. It might help if you put tape around close to where you are cutting just to absorb some of the shock the glass incurs. Make sure you use safety glasses, some glass chips easier than others. If it's thick glass it won't break and thin will break easily. If you can't tell of the thickness go ahead and start drilling just don't press down hard. You'll find out if you can drill it or not. I've never had one blow up, it just gently cracks on you.
I fold up an old towel, lay it across my lap, put the bottle on the towel resting between my legs, then wrap a little bit of the towel around the bottle close to where I'm going to drill. Doing it in my lap gives me more control over the bottle. TIP: Keep light weight oil on the drill bit, so it doesn't get hot. (02/02/2007)
By Rosealina
I saw on TV where they used the empty liquor bottles as legs for coffee tables. It was really neat, you can make the coffee table any shape or style. They painted the bottle the color of their choice and then filled them with sand so they could be sturdy enough to hold the table. (06/16/2007)
By Heather
You can buy a special bit at your hardware store to drill in pottery and glass. To make a lamp you thread the wire from the lamp kit through the hole made with the drill bit (the plug stays on the other side of the hole) then thread it through and attach the light part. I did this with a heavy clay bottle and it is just about the right weight to not topple over. Unless you can fill the bottle with something to make it heavier I suggest using a candlestick light kit. (08/14/2007)
I use a liquor decanter for my dishsoap. For the top I just use one of those plugs they use on liquor bottles in the bars. I got a bag with 10 or so in it for a couple of dollars at Walmart, but you can find them just about anywhere. The plastic ones seem to work better than the metal ones. I guess because the soap is thicker than alcohol. (08/21/2007)
By Patchouli
Recently we used empty wine bottles to make drinking glasses and tumblers with a bottle cutter (search bottle cutter) they are nice, but it requires lots of work to get the edges as smooth as I require. Then we made lamps using a favorite label wine with label still attached, with a lamp kit we got at Lowe's.
We safely used a Dremel to put a hole in the bottom outside edge of the bottle. It is beautiful and make a memorable present for our friend's birthday. I really like the hurricane lamp idea with bottom of the bottle cut away and a length of wire wound inside the bottle that holds a tea light. This whole thing hangs in a tree or somewhere. I saw that on the net too, relatively inexpensive. (02/14/2008)
By Jen and Chris
The easiest way I have found to drill holes in bottles is with some sort of diamond bit (actually, not a drill bit). I use this one that is just shaped like a sphere with diamond surfacing all the way around, and just turn the Dremel up to 10 and apply slight pressure while running cold water over the bit and the hole. (07/09/2008)
By Mark
To make the beautiful lighted wine bottles: buy a Black and Decker 1/2inch glass and tile drill bit from Home Depot. Hand wash the wine bottles and air dry, being careful to keep the labels intact. Lay the bottle on cloth so it won't roll, and about an inch from the bottom on the back side of the bottle, make a ring (about the size of a quarter) out of silly putty or play dough, leaving a well in the center. Add a little water inside the ring and drill through it very slowly.
The drill bit needs to be kept moist or wet so it doesn't get too hot and break the bottle. Buy the lights 35 to a string at the 99cent store. Start feeding them into the bottom through the hole. From a coat hanger, cut a 12 to14 inch piece, putting a very small hook on one end. Use this to pull the lights up from the top, to even them out as you continue to insert from the bottom until you only have the cord and plug left.
Decorate with wire ribbon and grapes, or for Christmas, use Christmas ribbon and an ornament. They have some lovely grape clusters at the hobby stores that look almost real. (10/06/2008)
By Suzyq
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