Spring Craft #1

I just realized that Easter is a mere 3 1/2 weeks away, and so I decided to get myself in gear and start working on a few Easter and Spring items with which to decorate my home.  I also particularly enjoy designing a collection of items to adorn my fireplace mantle.  In case you missed it, here is my current St. Patrick's Day mantle decor, and you can read about it in this post:

I have a fairly large mantle that can hold a good variety of objects, so if I want to put a spring/Easter display up right after St. Patrick's Day (March 17th), I better get a move on.  Easter is on Sunday, March 31st this year.

Today I will show you how I took some old bottles out of our recycling bin and gave them a makeover.  I plan to use these three bottles on the mantle.  I know I have seen a picture somewhere on a blog or on pinterest of a similar project, but I have been unable to find that picture again.  So I am somewhat making up the process as I go.

First I found and washed three different sized bottles, two wine bottles and one beer bottle.  I began by using my glue gun to put a string of hot glue around the mouth of the first bottle, and then started winding regular twine around and around the bottle.

After about every three laps around it is necessary to shoot another strip of glue onto the bottle.  I learned quickly that it looks best if you keep the strands pressed tightly up against each other.  Here's a closeup view of the beginning of this one:

I was concerned at first that the blue glass would show through or the twine would look too raggedy, but when it's all done none of that is noticeable.  At the bottom of the bottle I was careful to cover all the way to the bottom edge, yet glue the twine so that the bottle is not wobbly as it sits on a surface.  Here is the bottle almost completely covered:

 A few doo-dads were added, and then this first bottle was done.  

After giving my fingers a few moments to heal from the glue gun burns, I began the second bottle.  Same process but different stuff to jazz it up.

And finally, time to work on the thankfully smallest of the three bottles.  Trouble was, I got nearly half of the bottle done at which time I realized I did was not going to have enough twine to completely cover the bottle.  It was 10:00 at night, and I certainly wasn't going out then to try and find more twine, and even if I did find some, would it match?  

Back to the drawing board.  I decided to try and make it look as if I had intended not to completely cover the bottle in twine, by saving some twine for the very bottom of the bottle.  I covered the middle section with ribbon, and used a bit of twine mixed with baker's twine for the decoration.   

Once this one was complete, I actually was kind of pleased that it had a little creative difference from the other two.

Placed together in a grouping, they are ready to be placed onto the mantle.  

Well there it is, folks.  Just another relaxing couple of hours enjoyed doing something crafty.  

For me, it's therapeutic.