Got Wine…

More importantly, if you’ve got wine, then shortly after that you should have an empty wine bottle.  Or maybe not too shortly, I guess it really depends on how fast you drink it.  However, I find that the best wine is always drunk (drank?) with friends.  This generally results in several empty wine bottles pretty quickly.  Moving on…

A year or so ago, I attended a birthday party for one of Bitty’s friends, Little A.  It was a fabulous party.  Little A’s mom had made the most amazing cake and Little A’s grandmother was a most gracious host.  After presents were opened and while the kids played, the adults got to chat and catch up with each other.  As I chatted with Little A’s mom L and her mother-in-law C, I noticed an awesome thing on C’s countertop. 

See the pretty glowing wine bottle with the cutesy little grapes hanging off?  That’s what I spotted and then was gifted with!  Yep, Little A’s grandmother let me take one of her awesome creations home with me.  LOVE it!  Of course I had to know how to make them, and C gave me her simple directions.  Which I will now share with you, but with a Kadbury Spin* on them.

*A Kadbury Spin is when I receive instructions from someone, forget half of them, and then try to muddle through on my own.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

• empty wine bottle
• drill bit thingy from Home Depot or Lowes’ (I’ll explain in a minute)
• cutesy little grapes (I found mine at Michael’s)
• raffia (it’s that straw looking stuff, which I also found at Michael’s)
• mini Christmas lights, with no more than 25 lights on the strand.  Make sure the lights only have one plug dealie.  (go here for an idea of where to find these)

I’m pretty sure that C told me to find the drill bit at Lowes, but I ended up at Home Depot anyway.  This is what MC picked: 

It’s a glass and tile bit.  It looks nothing like the thing that C used, but it got the job done. 

The picture is crooked and fuzzy because I just finished that yummy bottle of Cupcake Riesling.  Okay, not really.  It’s just a super bad picture.  Not everything I do can turn out great 100% of the time, although I know that’s what you’ve come to expect of me.

NOT!  ; ) 

I got MC to drill the hole in the back of the bottle.  He put the bottle in a sink full of water so that the glass wouldn’t fly out and hit him in the eyes.  Because that would be bad.  I would have also worn safety glasses, but that’s just me.

Applying firm (but gentle) pressure will get the drill bit through the glass.  Once the bit is through, slowly work the bit around the hole you’ve created until it’s big enough to fit the lights through.

After MC finished drilling, I cleaned the bits of label up and then sanded the drilled area so there weren’t any sharp edges.  Holding the bottle upside down, I inserted my strand of lights (I used a strand of 10) and shook them around a little to get them evenly distributed. 

I then took a thin little strand of raffia and tied it to the grapes.  Using my handy dandy glue gun, I glued the raffia together at the back of the bottle.  On the right is my lovely gift from C, and the one on the left is my mine.

Woot!  Later I added a little raffia bow.  Later than that I decided I didn’t like it and removed it, but didn’t take another picture.  Wanna see the the blue one all lit up? 

Of course you do:

Ooh!  Aah!  Sooo purdy! 

Now go out there, find some friends and open up a bottle of your favorite wine… Just don’t forget to save the bottle when you’re done… ; )

Sharing the love and linking up here!

Skip To My Lou                       Tip Junkie                        The Lettered Cottage

Sugar Bee Crafts                    Centsational Girl                Designer Garden

The Stories Of A 2 Z                Shabby Nest                    Tatertots and Jello

Lovely Crafty Home                 Fingerprints on the Fridge