Twine Wrapped Bottles ~ Giving Trash Some Class

Debi Willhoite
by Debi Willhoite
$0.00
6 Hours
Easy
I love to recycle bottles. I also love using twine on them. It gives them a bit of a rustic feel and a beachy feel at the same time. I have a huge stash as I collect them everywhere I go. Sometimes I even buy something at the grocery store because I like the shape of the bottle.....luckily for me, most times I end up liking what's in the bottle too! This was my second time doing twine wrapped bottles. They were made for a special lady in mind.....my mom. They were a house warming gift for her new rebuilt home on a lake in Michigan where my five sisters and I grew up. The house had been built in 1920. It had had two remodels with the last one in 1987 after my father passed away. It was a two story, two bedroom, one bath home. Eight people lived in that place, seven woman (that's a lot of hormones running around), and one man....my poor dad. And did I mention it had ONE bathroom! I really don't know how any of us survived lol!
Well now it's time for another remodel....sad part was that this time we found that the house was not to code, and one outside wall that ran the full length of the house was leaning outward and the only thing holding it up was the roof! It would have never made another winter and, the house itself had been braced and built on tree stumps underneath! It's amazing it stood as long as it did! So the decision was made to tear it down to the ground and rebuild. I saw the tear down through pictures because I live in Florida along with another sister. But, at the same time we were happy for our mom to have something brand new and everything in it too!
These are the bottles I made, and through pictures showing me her color pallet, I made them to match. My sister took some pallets that the lumber for the house was delivered on and made her a coffee table painted in a light aqua color. I wasn't sure if mom would like them or not, but she loved them and they went perfectly in her house. She sat them on a corner of the coffee table. I saw them when I went home in May of this year. They looked really nice and I was happy she enjoyed them.
This is the house as they started the tear down. This faces the lake.
This is the house now....a one story, two bedrooms, still one bath, no stairs for mom to climb, and just perfect for her to manage. She had just turned 74 when they started the tear down in 2012. Where the truck is parked there use to be a garage there......a tornado took it down years ago. It seems to me it had been rebuilt, but it had to come down several years back, or maybe I'm dreaming. I seem to be forgetting things now days lol. Anyway...we are going to rebuild a garage and add a bedroom above that. In time we hope to put a second story with another bedroom and full bath above the house again. This picture was taken this last May. They had just finished the deck and a porch out back at the back entry of the house.
The family tore the house down in the Spring of 2012 and just before Christmas that year it was done enough to move mom back home. Still had a few things to finish but it was time. She wanted to spend Christmas there. All the family came and a celebration was had. The greatest gift ever given her....and built by the hands of her family. And no one had ever built a house before either! Pretty awesome don't ya think!


There's the table my sister made from the pallets, and right where that candle is, is where mom put her bottles when she received them in the mail the following March for her house warming and 75th birthday all in one party. I was sad I couldn't get home for that.That's my mom soaking it all in...a total change from what the inside use to be like! Ok back to the bottles!
These are the bottles I started with. A sparkling pink lemonade beverage....so yummy! I loved the curvy shape to it to. (This was one of the bottles I bought at the grocery store because of the shape, and found it yummy to boot!) A wine bottle just like this one only empty....I didn't drink it either. We don't drink hardly ever. And then the small bottle which I didn't get a picture of was a Bud Light beer bottle. So three altogether!
I had no idea what I was going to create with the bottles...only that I was wrapping them in twine. Once done I knew I wanted more on them, that's when I pulled up the pictures my sister had shared on Facebook for us, and thought....go with her colors, and the sofa had stripes! So painted stripes became the focus. And of course I had in my craft room the exact colors in craft paints that I needed too! Hubby said, "of course you do, you have ever color there is!" And I just about do lol! I told him he should be thankful I didn't have to go buy some! After the painting was done I thought they still needed something....so then I cut three pieces of twine and tied it around the bottle necks and left long streamers. They still needed something! Then I remembered seeing a tutorial somewhere on making these paper roses sooooo, that's what I made next. These are so fun and quite addicting once you start it! Once done with that I glued them over the knots of the twine streamers. STILL I wasn't happy! So then I got my paint brush and lightly tipped the roses with the paint colors I used! Tada!!! Now I was happy and they were finally done six or so hours later! Off to the post office I go! YEA!!!!
Today I did a tutorial on these so if you want to learn to wrap bottles in twine...it's on the blog.....just click the link below or, at the top of the blog page there is a category labeled "Tutorials"....you can find it there also.
If you don't have bottles, check with local restaurants that serve beer and wine. They are willing to give you the empties for FREE! I get a lot of mine that way!
Not to shabby and now a little classy! A sad ending to this story. My mom celebrated one more Christmas in her new home and her 76th birthday in March of this year. This last May...two days before Mother's Day, my mom was diagnosed with cancer and it was all through her body. They gave her four weeks to live. We all rushed home to be with her....she only made it two weeks. All six of us girls were with her at home when she died. We were all so overwhelmed hearing the news and then losing her so quickly that we all were in a state of shock! My mom told us she wanted that home to stay in the family and was leaving it to us girls. We all have our own homes, and with a new mortgage on the house from the rebuild that put us in a spot. So we decided to rent it for a year and then God willing, next year my husband and I are going to buy it....pay off the mortgage, do the additions I talked about above, pay out my sisters their share, and continue with each of our families and all the grandbabies and the great grandbabies, to build memories, share the past and the history of our family and growing up at the house built for mom.



New walls, but still our home. We'll show our kids and grandkids how much fun it is living on a lake. Boating, skiing, tubing, canoeing, sailing, fishing, swimming, paddle boarding, and in the winter sledding, ice skating, ice fishing, snow mobiling, etc. Just great living in the country sharing our lives with each other again. That's what both our parents wanted and that's what we will do!The day after mom died we all had to dig in and finish several things on the house, pack up all her stuff, take what she had laid out in the guest bedroom that she wanted each of us to have, and get it ready for the renter. All before her funeral! That put a cringe in our hearts knowing someone else was in moms house and we can't go home for now, but we had no choice. That mortgage had to be paid, and we had to save that house for us. Mom said!.....Next year!..... And as I left, I picked up the bottles I made for mom and packed them to bring back home crying my eyes out. But....she loved them! That still makes my heart smile even though my heart is broken.
This is the first bottle I ever did with the twine wrap. I used the sparkling juice bottle for this recycle too! I found this design on a foreign blog and there was something wrong with the site so all I had was the picture to go by. I liked it a lot and wanted one like it. After I did this, her site was fixed and I have a link to it on the blog post of this to where I got the inspiration to make it. The link to this post is on my sidebar on the blog.
I wrapped some vintage lace around the bottle bring it lower in the back. I even made a bottle cap for it and glued a little pearl in the center. It kinda looks like a bird nest!
I drew out on a book page my stem with leaves. Made some rolled roses for the first time from a tutorial I found for them, added a rhinestone in the center of one for a little bling of course, and small pearls in the other two.
Hope this wasn't to unbearably long for you. I'm good at sharing stories, just haven't got the short version down yet lol. Those bottles for mom had a special story to them.


Oh don't forget the link below will take you to the post of mom's bottles with the tutorial at the end! I did it right this time....tutorial posted first then the post! :) I have been at this all day....making a bottle partway done for the tutorial, trying to find the same like bottles I used, putting the tutorial together, doing this share as I was asked too do by a nice lady at Hometalk who liked these after seeing them on my blog, after my demijohn bottle knockoff post. Then freeze up issues all day long on laptop, and then....at 3AM after two hours of time in this, I was just finishing this post and my cotton pickin lap top shut down to reboot and update without giving me a warning like it usually does. And, BAM....I lost everything and had to start all over! It's almost 7AM now and I am whipped!


So if I have misspelled anything, or used incorrect words, or messed up something, please don't be to harsh on me. My brain is dead tired, eyes are crossed, and I should have had this done yesterday! Going to bed! Night Night! Hugs...Have a blessed day! Enjoy!
Debi Willhoite
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Lenalay Lenalay on Mar 05, 2015
    So very cute
  • Nydia Nydia on Mar 05, 2015
    Loved your bottles, I too am a DIYer! Love to fix, redo, create, ect.. I sanded, primed and painted my kitchen cabinets and my dinning table and chairs, made a potting bench for my gardening, made hand pots for my cactus, and so on. O enjoy making things on my own- such a satisfying feeling.😊 So sorry for your lost, I surely know how it feels... My mom passed away last May and i miss her terriblely! I have a beautiful Garden all because of Her. Once she got sick I started taking care of Her plants with hope that If i didnt let her plants die she wouldnt die eighter😞 Well it worked for a while, but eventually she got more delicate and passed away. So now I LOVE Plants and have ALL her plants with me and they are BEAUTIFUL and every time they bloom- it reasures me she is here with me😘 ! Sorry for the long story, guess I had to tell someone and that someone became you😊 Keep sending your DIYs!
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