WCLD: Upcycling Vino Bottles

Ty & I went on a wine tasting road trip in the BC interior a few years back where I discovered White Meritage, Chenin Blanc and Ice Wine! Needless to say we came home with 2 boxes of wine. I'm getting down to the last bottles from that trip and some of the bottles are so gorgeous (and have memories attached to them) that I can't bear to chuck them in the blue box. What to do with these little gems??? I love the look of wine bottles that have been used as candle holders with wax dripping down the side-so I used that as my inspiration and came up with raffia wrapped vino bottles!

Let the hot gluing commence!

I had two different sized bottles that had been sitting on my dining room table, so I started with those. I started at the bottom with a small hot glue dot on the bottom of the bottle and started wrapping. I learnt as I went, that minimal glue was best, and to wrap the raffia tight to ensure it didn't slip. I wanted to keep the labels showing to remember what wine they had held and which winery they were from.

To do this, I put a small glue dot on the edge of the label and wrapped the raffia from there, around the back of the bottle, to the other side of the label, securing with another hot glue dot. If the raffia piece I was using was too long, I simply snipped it off. You will see in the close up I tried doubling back the raffia to the next line. Both methods worked-they just look different. This part was time consuming, but important, since I felt the labels added character.

I found it tough to get the raffia to lie nicely at the top of the bottle, where it starts to slant towards the neck. This takes some creative wrapping. There will be gaps, you will burn your fingers trying to get the raffia to stay in JUST the right place - or at least I did. When I was doing it, I didn't think it looked that hot. Once both were complete I changed my mind. These are supposed to look rustic, so if they're not perfect, it's OK!

I struggle with wrapping up the neck of the bottle!

Finished Product! Lovely

They looked great. So I set them on my dining room table (living in my kitchen nook, since the dining room ceiling has a hole in it....don't ask), but something was missing.....

Sad little candle holders. You're naked!

My spidey senses started tingling. A faboosh idea was coming to me-how could I make these vino bottles a little more glamorous? I ran down the stairs and into my crawl space in the garage. Luckily all 2 of my fall decorating goodies were in an open box, lying right on top-they must've known I was coming for them! I raced back up stairs to start arranging this beautiful fall centre piece.