Re cycled Glass Bottles
Made into Vases!

This project is not hard, but you do need one special piece of kit!!
It`s called a bottle cutting kit.
I got mine from a company in England through an advert
in the back of Crafts Beautiful Magazine.
The bottles are just wine or spirit bottles,
I manage to get some from the local pub, so they`re a little bigger.
But, I do use ordinary wine bottles as well.
When you start cutting the bottles, use ones that are not too pretty,
as it takes a little practice to cut them, and your first efforts will not always work.
But once you have the knack, it`s not too difficult.
The main thing is , once you have them cut,
you have to make sure you smooth the cut edge well.
I have found that if you use "wet and dry" sand paper
on a drill sander, rough first, then fine grain.
Finish off with fine grain wet and dry by hand (fold over top edge, and run around)
it gives you a really smooth polished edge.

Once you have mastered your technique, it comes to decorating them.
There are many ways, painting with glass paint, decoupage,
sticking on shells or those little glass beads that are flat on the back,
your imagination can run wild!!
I have shown just three of mine. You can also use them to put candles in
and they can then be used as patio lights,
or put on the table at Christmas, and used as a center piece.

Here`s how I did the Thistle vase shown above.

That`s it !! Nothing too complicated. Have a go. Anyone who has seen mine,
has no idea that these lovely vases were once bottles hanging on a gantry in the local PUB!!!