So Simple to Make Gorgeous Upcycled Christmas Bottle Lights

5 Materials
$2
1 Hour
Easy
I've always loved lights in old bottles. However, the thought of trying to cut or drill into glass bottles has put me off. Well, the other day I came across some fantastic cork bottle lights which eliminate the need to cut into the glass.

I used these lights to upcycle some old bottles into gorgeous Christmas lights.
You can use any glass bottles, such as wine bottles, bourbon, and whiskey bottles. Personally, I'm not much of a wine drinker but I do like a gin and tonic, so I used some small tonic water bottles for my lights.
The first thing to do is to soak your bottles in hot soapy water to remove the labels.
I managed to buy adhesive Christmas foam shapes from my local pound (dollar) store. If you prefer, you can just buy the sticky back foam and cut your own shapes by hand or with a die cutting machine.
Stick the foam shapes onto your bottle.
Spray paint your bottle with at least 2 coats of paint. Then when the paint has dried thoroughly, carefully remove the foam stickers.


The light will shine through where the foam stickers have been. So you can create all sorts of illuminated Christmas scenes.


I used a bit of Christmas tape to cover the cork, but you can just leave them as they are.
I love these bottle lights they make a lovely decoration on the mantle or side tables.


My kids want one for there rooms and I made a special one out of a bourbon bottle for the man cave.


I love to use these lovely copper lights in my Christmas decorations and I've also used them to make adorable mini pine cone Christmas trees, which you can see here.
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Claire at Pillarboxblue
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Frequently asked questions
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  • Sheri Sheri on Nov 17, 2019

    Where did you find the pattern for the birch tree trunks?

  • Jemi Knight-Peterson Jemi Knight-Peterson on Nov 21, 2019

    Do the foam stickers come off easily? Or do they leave a residue you have to clean??

  • Pam Pam on Nov 11, 2020

    What kind of lights did you use and where is the battery pack for them hidden?

    Your bottles turned out beautifully. Thanks for sharing.

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  • Ironhorse68450 Ironhorse68450 on Nov 17, 2020

    One of the best parts about this is I get to reuse the stickers Claire..so far I've made 3...now to decide what color lights to put in them!!!!

  • Lori Ward-Laatsch Lori Ward-Laatsch on Nov 23, 2020

    The bottle looks cool before you took the foam off you could do a few that way it looks pretty from what I see. I think I would do others with foam still on a but put star stickers and take them off for the light to shine through that would be super cute too! This makes me wish I had bottles lol. Great project!!!

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