Thursday 27 November 2014

'Recycle for Christmas'

Hi, time for our next challenge over at ATP exchange and this time Yvonne is hosting it. With the festive season nearly upon us she has come up with a great challenge theme and is asking us to 'Recycle for Christmas'. It could be a box, a piece of packaging....there are lots of possibilities.


I decided to alter a star shaped bottle that I've had for years and could never quite decide what to do with but certainly didn't want to throw it away. It's about 6.5 inch/16cm high and originally contained some liqueur....which was a Christmas present!


I have been wanting to try Tim's Faux Cracked Glass technique for a while now and the idea developed of creating 'something' inside the bottle. The technique is the only part I won't explain as it can be found in Compendium of Curiosities III. I'm quite pleased with it as it's my first attempt....the only thing I will say is that as it's a star shaped bottle with many surfaces I probably should have tried doing a surface at a time, not the whole lot at once!


Firstly I used the houses from the CI 257 set to stamp onto a circle of tissue in black archival, then tore around the edge and adhered to the back with matte medium. On the front I masked off a circular area before covering the whole bottle in faux cracked glass.


I did use a lot of WV cornflower blue archival ink as I wanted a really intense colour.


Whenever I use shrink plastic I always think why don't I use it more often....I love it! At first I was going to make stars but then realised that stars belong in the sky not below the houses.  I found a snowflake stamp that would be small enough to go through the 1.5cm neck of the bottle....I do like a challenge. The star and text embellishments were made with PaperArtsy stamps (ID07 and Xmas plate 1)


There are 5 snowflakes suspended inside the bottle. I also applied some PVA to the edge of the circle and applied glamour dust before colouring with blue archival.


The cork was split and holes made in the top to thread the metallic thread through. A crackle effect was applied to the cork using frescos in space cadet and antarctic with PaperArtsy crackle glaze. I finished the cork with a button from my stash that I gilded with sapphire treasure gold.

Hope you enjoyed your visit, please do hop over and see the wonderful creations of the Design Team, I'm sure you'll be inspired and we can't wait to see what you'll recycle! Thanks as always for stopping by.

17 comments:

  1. What an absolute triumph your Faux Crackle is too! I love the gorgeous blue and the wonderful image you chose. Having things dangling inside is so clever and the cork on top is finished beautifully too. This is so lovely... Anne xx

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  2. Great theme and the bottle looks amazing! Wow the crackle on the glass just looks fantastic and the bottle is such an interesting shape, - wonderful project!

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  3. This is so lovely Ruth,beautiful colour and the faux crackle is amazing. Love the little additions inside the bottle too,very sweet

    Big hugs
    Donna xxx

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  4. Such a clever idea Ruth! I love the crackled finish and the button on the top is beautiful. I love the idea of the hanging things inside the bottle too. Great bottle makeover!
    Julia x

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  5. Fantastic recycling project Ruth, such glorious colours and the idea of dangling snowflakes is brilliant, do they make any noise if you move the bottle? :-) xxx

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    1. Hi Mo, just tried it....a little bit of a clatter!.....and sorry didn't answer you last question, yes I am keeping the dress form x

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  6. Hi Ruth, love it, love it, love it!!! I have been collecting empty bottles I liked the look of but could not decide what to do with them and this is a great idea, gorgeous.
    Have a great crafty day, Angela x

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  7. OHHHHHhhhhhhhh I love this... so very pretty... I love blue glass... so I guess I am going to have to drag out the old bottles and decorate some... LOL.. what a shame, eh??? Anyway, I absolutely LOVE this shape too... I have about 20 plus octagon bottles from honey and would love to share... sorry we are so very far apart... you could have a go at some of these too... I love bottles... and have a couple of windowsills filled with them... they are just so very pretty when the sun light comes thru them... love the top on this bottle too... so very elegant Ruth... Thanks too for visiting my blog... hope you get a chance to try those beads.. they are fun... got my six necklaces done for presents... now maybe they will all get a pretty bottle too... would be nice... thanks so very much for all your sharing.. Love, Light and Peace...Bonnie

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  8. Gorgeous bottle Ruth ! Love the snowflakes hanging on the inside and the crackle is fabulous ! Sue C x

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  9. Wow, love how you altered the bottle Ruth, the crackling looks fantastic. All the details add to its charm, especially how you have added hanging pieces on the inside as well.
    Yvonne xx

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  10. So pretty and unusual, I really like the odd shape of the star. What a great make xx

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  11. What a surprising transformation! Like your icing bottle!

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  12. Such a stunning alteration Ruth! Great result...
    greetings, Alie :-)

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  13. Stunning crackle, and I love the lid too - what a brilliant bit of recycling.
    Alison xx

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  14. Lovely make over! Love your crackle finish . Really like the way you have suspended the shrink plastic stars inside the bottle x

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  15. Brilliant Christmas decoration and a beautiful piece of recycling!,Chrisx

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  16. The crackle looks wonderful and what a clever idea to add elements inside and out. Jenny x

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