Vintage Labels

Today I purchased these awesome vintage labels from an Etsy shop. They're a combination of cigar labels and soda labels from the 1950's. I'm planning on making a batch of candles from recycled beer and wine bottles that I cut last week and thought these would be beautiful additions. I'll be gluing them onto the recycled bottles for a vintage flair.

When I took no prisoners embarked on my DIY rampage I thought I'd try my hand at candles. My first batch was incredibly anti climatic. My little pathetic flame just kind of withered and died without melting much of anything. Turns out you need different types of wax for different types of candles. So nice of my DIY Candle kit to mention that to me...

 It took a little bit of digging to figure out what the heck I should order so let me make it simple for you. I ordered 5 pounds of soy wax from Amazon that came highly rated and is perfect for container candles. Also, check out the table below for helpful candle/wax tips!

Good luck in your craft adventures!

DIY, How to Cut Bottles

There's something incredibly satisfying about turning something that would be thrown away into a practical, useful, and trendy product! Bottle cutting is relatively simple, inexpensive, and a lot of fun!
To complete the tutorial you'll need a bottle cutter. I recommend this one, Ephrem's Original Bottle Cutter Kit ($29)

Learn How to Cut Bottles By Watching The Short Tutorial Below!

Bottle Cutting Tutorial

Bottle Cutting 101!

Everything you need to know about bottle cutting, condensed into 3 easy steps.

I recommend using Ephrem's Bottle Cutting Kit. It's simple, cheap ($29), and effective. Here's a link, Ephrem's Original Bottle Cutter Kit

This is my first tutorial so please let me know what you think! I'd love some feedback.

Extra notes,

The first step is to score the bottle. The score doesn't have to be deep. Make sure to apply consistent constant pressure. Once the score is done you need to apply heat. Have a cup of ice handy and light a candle. For 12 ounce beer bottles keep over the flame for 60 seconds. The thicker the glass the longer it needs to rotate over the flame. A champagne bottle should stay over the flame for about 2 minutes.

Next, rub ice around the score mark. You may hear cracking. This means it's working. If you see vertical stress cracks your bottle got too hot. I'd recommend discarding and starting over. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get it right! That's ok, and expected!

Continue to alternate between fire and ice until your bottle breaks in half. Try and maintain a firm grip because it happens very suddenly!

Good luck, and if you have questions, leave them in the comments below!

Beerology @ The Museum of Man

Tonight some friends and I attended Beerology at the Museum of Man in Balboa Park. The event sponsored by Green Flash, Alesmith, Dog Fish Head and a number of other micro brews was a resounding success and not just because of the all you can drink samples from some of the -Iamnotbiased- best breweries in the country, cupcakes with stout icing, and the cool museum atmosphere.

At the end of the night I asked if I could bring some bottles home...Somehow it took myself, three strapping gentlemen, and 4 large boxes to carry the 60 silk screened bottles to car.

I'm especially pleased with these "Enlightened Buddha Beer" bottles, although I have no idea what to do with them...They cannot be cut on the bumpy surface. Any ideas? Anyone?

Have you heard that the largest shelf in your house is the floor?

The man running the Left Coast booth also threw these guys into the boxes...I like to think it's because I'm cute...although he probably just didn't want to carry everything back.

True Life: I'm a Bottle Hoarder

I knew I had reached a low when I caught my boyfriend trying to take a picture of me in my cute Friday night dress reaching into the recycling at Bottle Craft trying to fish out empty beer bottles...but you would do it too if you were making TRENDY tumblers, glasses, candles, and hurricanes out of beer bottles.

I've come to realize over the years that I have this tendency to overdo craft projects. One day I'm painting picture frames for my dorm room, 6 months later I'm applying for a seed capital loan to buy wholesale frames at Juniata. So it's really no surprise that every horizontal space in our apartment is occupied with beer bottles in various forms. I blame my friends and family for feeding my habits! YES, YOU READING THIS! It's probably YOUR FAULT! See just yesterday I got a Facebook comment from someone saying they had saved me a bunch of empties, including this 18 inch tequila bottle that wasn't yet entirely empty..so you know what that means.

Let's cut to the chase. Bottle cutting is a fantastic way to recycle or immortalize trendy bottles that you would otherwise just get rid of. The thought of bottles having a second life is appealing to me.

Get excited, tutorials to come.