During the summer break I had a long weekend with Marc and Rick at the cottage in Worcester and decided to take a small Christmas project with me to fiddle fart with as we nattered and caught up.
My apologies, as it’s something I’ve done before over the years, but with a huge stash of bottles, bought from The Works a couple of years ago, they really needed to be used up. I bought the bottles when they cost £1 for a pack of six. They still stock them, but they are now priced at £1.50 a pack. They also do boxes of 16 for £3.
https://www.theworks.co.uk/p/make-and-create/glass-craft-bottles---pack-of-6/5052089088245.html
Once settled in Marc’s lounge, I commandeered a small table and the upright chair and got to work, it was all simple, repetitive stuff that I didn’t have to concentrate on.
The cork tops were each given a silver, metal space bead, using B-7000 glue to secure them and then a tiny screw eyed hook by which to hang the decoration from.
When the corks were dry, I added a dangly thing for the inside, using a eye pin (that I cut down to fit) with a pearl bead and small snowflake or wish charm.
When the corks were finished I put either tiny silver or translucent stars or artificial snow into the bottles, depending on the charm used and then sealed the cork in position with a little B-7000 glue, just to be on the safe side.
Round the top of the bottles I wrapped a strong blue thread with either a star, snowman or snowflake charm attached.
I also filled some bottles with the artificial snow and stuck on a tiny “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” label on the front that I had made created and printed off a couple of years ago using Microsoft Publisher.
When I got home all I had to do was add a silver hanging thread and then pop each bottle in a very small cello bag.
Most of these will be given as a small tranklement instead of a Christmas card later on in the year and as I made so many in a concerted effort to use all the bottles I had, there should be enough left over for Iris and Bertie to drop off as Random Acts of Festive Kindness all along the school run in December.
I think I am going to return to quite a few ideas from crafty Christmas’s past in an effort to use up other bits and pieces I seem to have stock piled …… including the Christmas stable decorations (above) where I might make some minor alterations to alleviate the boredom and potentially add a little more colour…… we shall see.
