Jump to content Jump to search

5 Ideas for DIY Liquor Bottles

Fri, Dec 02, 22

DIY Liquor bottlesDo you have tons of empty bottles lying around?

Spare yourself some overflowing recycling bins, and try out some of these fun ideas.  Up-cycling and repurposing are big right now, and we’ve compiled a list of several easy projects for diy liquor bottles. (There’s even a tip for those leftover corks!)

Get creative and paint them!

Materials

  • Bottle
  • Spray Paint
  • Acrylic
  • Paint Brushes
  • Modge Podge or Sealant of Choice

Instructions

Start out by coating the bottles in two light coats of spray paint.  The is going to be your base color, so neutrals like white, gray, or black work well.  Decide on a design for your bottles—tribal print, stripes, chevron, etc.  Using the acrylics, carefully apply your pattern on top of the dried spray paint.  After the paint dries apply some Modge Podge or other sealant to the outside of the bottle to help set your design.

Wrap bottles in yarn.

This tutorial from Upcycled Treasures is great for vases and cheap dorm room decor.
Materials

  • Bottle – I used a wine bottle but any bottle, or jar will do
  • Yarn –  You can also use rope, twine, etc.
  • Glue – I used mostly Mod Podge but then used my glue gun for the bottom of the jar – you could use any glue you have on hand
  • Paint Brush
  • Scissors

Instructions

  1. Clean the bottle – I actually washed mine in the dishwasher to help loosen up the label, and then scrubbed it with steel wool to get the rest of the sticky stuff off. Of course this is going to be covered so it doesn’t need to be perfect.
  2. Starting at the top, paint on some Mod Podge {or whatever glue you have} around the rim of the bottle and begin twisting you yarn around the top, one line under the other. If you prefer a more organic look you can layer the yarn rather than keep the lines straight. {Side Note: I used Mod Podge rather than the glue gun because I thought it would keep it cleaner and be easier to use, and I think it was.  I was nervous about the yarn sticking to the bottle but the Mod Podge did a great job. However, I did have issues with the yarn sticking at the very bottom of the bottle which is when I changed to the glue gun. If you stop your yarn 1/4 above the bottom you probably won’t have this issue, or you may just need to use more glue at the bottom than the rest of the bottle, otherwise the glue gun did the trick.}
  3. Wind it up – Keep winding the yarn around the bottle until you get to the bottom – then cut the yarn,  glue the last bit and you’re done!

Cut bottles to make tumblers or cool vases.

Cutting glassware has lots of cool applications. Some of our suggestions are making hurricane lamps, tumblers, and asymmetrically cut vases. Wikihow has a couple of different methods that they suggest for cutting glass bottles. Here’s how to do it with acetone:
Materials

  • Empty Bottle
  • Yarn
  • Acetone Nail Polish Remover
  • Match or Lighter
  • Cold Water
  • Sandpaper

Instructions

The construction is pretty simple:

  1. Wrap the yarn. If you don’t have yarn available, you can use any thick cotton string. At the location of where you would like the bottle to break, wrap a piece of yarn around the bottle 3-5 times. Tie the ends together and cut off any excess string.
  2. Soak the yarn in acetone. Slide the yarn off the end of the bottle, and place it in a small dish or lid. Pour a bit of nail polish remover or straight-up acetone over the yarn until it is completely soaked. You can pour the excess acetone back into the bottle afterwards.
  3. Wrap the bottle again. Take the yarn and replace it back on the bottle in the exact location you want it to break. Try to make sure that the loops of yarn are placed close together and are tight so that you get a level, clean break.
  4. Light the yarn on fire. Use a match or a lighter to catch the yarn (on the bottle) on fire. Rotate the bottle slowly so that the yarn burns at a consistent speed around the entire bottle.
  5. Dunk the bottle in cold water. Have your sink or a pot filled with cold water – you can add ice as well if you would like. Wait until the fire on the yarn has burnt out, and then stick the end of the bottle with the yarn directly into the water. The bottle should break cleanly off where the yarn was wrapped around it.
  6. Sand the edges. Use a rough sandpaper to smooth down the jagged edges on the broken section of the bottle. When you have removed any sharp corners, switch to a fine grit sandpaper to give the bottle a smooth, soft finish. You’re done!

Turn corks into stamps.

There’s a tutorial on instructables:

Materials

  • Wine corks (flat and smooth as possible)
  • Cutter
  • Pen
  • Stamp pad or ink

Instructions

The construction is pretty simple:

  1. Draw some simple things on the nicest side of the cork.
  2. Cut away all the outside part of the shape you draw, go a few millimeters deep.
  3. Mark the other side of the stamp with the design you made, so it’s easy to see what they are if you make many.
  4. Dip them in ink and stamp!

Or wine bottle tiki torches!

Apartment Therapy has a great tutorial:
Materials

  • 1/2″ x 3/8″ copper coupling
  • Tiki replacement wick
  • Nylon thread seal tape
  • Recycled wine bottle or beer bottle

Tools
Citronella torch fuel (price not included)

Instructions

The construction is pretty simple:

  1. Wrap the pipe wrap around the copper reducer many times. The opening on our wine bottle required about 15 times around so that it would stick and we actually inserted the smaller 3/8″ side into the bottle as the 1/2″ side didn’t fit (as compared to the original How-to). In the future, we’d also want to try it in beer bottles for smaller torches to place around the yard.
  2. Insert the wick into the reducer.
  3. Fill the bottle with Citronella and insert wick. Let the oil be absorbed into the wick before lighting.
  4. Light and enjoy!

How do you like to get crafty? There’s plenty of other ideas for DIY liquor bottles out there.  Is there a cool craft for DIY liquor bottles we missed?  Let us know.

All of these must-try diy projects are perfect for your empty bottles, but if you need a refill, stop on by Julio’s Liquors.  As always, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask any member of the Julio’s team.