"Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature." - Gerard De Nerval

CRAFT WITH RECYCLED BOTTLES

I never realized how many glass bottles I actually go through until I set out to do this crafty project. In my mind, I was like "Ok, let's (I am a group, by the way) slowly try to collect some bottles to get going on this project." 

2 days later... I had 9 bottles! It did help I serve plenty of wine at my work, and they just throw the bottles there away, sooooooo...

I had collected dressing bottles, Pellegrino bottles, Corona bottles, and plenty of wine bottles. Since this project I have another 13 random bottles to get going on another few projects. 

STEPS:

1. Stash away any glass bottles you find.

2. Soak them in suddsy water to get the labels and glue off as much as you can.

3. Sand off any unwanted lingering glue.

4. Head on over to Home Depot or Lowe's (they have a larger selection of colors) and pick out the spray paint of your choice for about $4 a can. Get matte, silk, or glossy - whatever you like! 

5. Whip out your trusty glue gun (grabbed one from Hobby Lobby for about $12 - it's wireless.) I chose to write words on my vases. But you can do any kind of design or verse, quote, polka dots, stripes, or name.

6. Let that glue dry and try to peel off any of those crazy glue gun fly-aways. 

7. Take your bottles outside and set up a little station to where it'd be flat to set the bottles upsidedown.

8. Spray away! Avoid the other bottles while spraying one at a time if they are different colors. 

9. Flip the bottles over once there are 3-4 coats DRIED on them. 

10. Spray the top edges and a little in the bottle's opening.

11. I got my fake flowers from Hobby Lobby. I think I paid too much for them, but that was me being in a hurry to get this project rolling. I heard they go on sale about once a month, so look for them there. OR better yet, drop a fresh flower or two into the vase after filling it with water. (Fake is good for me, I don't have the green thumb I wish I did.) 

12. Enjoy your new, home made, recycled vases! Or give them as gifts - which is what I did ( I shipped them out so hopefully my besties get theirs before they check out my post! I color coordinated the vases and flowers to their room colors.) 

 And that's it! You could set them on your fireplace, dresser, in the window, laundry room, kitchen....anywhere you want to bring the colors together in the space you love!

 I am planning on using most of my next 13 bottles all together in one large display.... Wonder how that's going to look. I'll post that as soon as I do it.

Thanks Pinterest, for your many creative ideas!

"Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives." - Tony Robbins

RESOURCES

Websites, blogs, articles, businesses, friends, networks...

There are so many resources in this colorful world of ours that allow us to make decissions about the spaces we love. 

I only PEEKED at some of the opportunities that are available...Check some of them out! 

Lowe's - You can easily create an account for yourself. Why would you need an account at Lowe's? Well, you know that paint color you got two summers ago and threw it onto your dining room walls? And now the messy, old can is sitting in a pile in your shed. And those dings and playful crayon monsters that are now on your walls? Do you remember the exact color you bought to go over those mishaps? Most likely not...Which is why from now on you go to My Lowe's!


- Saves your purchases at any Lowe's
- Finds the closest one to you
- Gain rebates
- Creates Files for continuing projects, wish lists, notes, etc.
- AND reminds you of unfinished projects and deadlines that you created for your home projects


I LOVE that this is available to everyone to use...for FREE! If you are a consistant costumer at Lowe's DO take advantage of this, and if you aren't...well you are now!


Another feature that they have is a Before and After for little projects to do around the house that improves appeal and funcionality.

Home Depot - CHECK OUT what they offer these days...

I picked the style bathroom, flooring, and color on the walls and cabinetry and counter tops - Right from their website and saved it to My Favorites. Just go into their paint department online and choose the Home Inspiration Tool.


Starts you off with what kind of room you are looking at and then takes it from there. In just seconds you are putting different paint samples together on the walls and seeing if the color scheme you wants flows together well. Then it can save your room, if you'd like, and show what you picked out in a shopping cart. Once you go to your shopping cart, it comes up with a calculator to figure how much paint you need based on your room dimensions - BRILLIANT!


And as if you need some more easy access, it can schedule an appoinment for a professional to come get your measurements FOR YOU. Also, if you place your order from your shopping cart, you can get in your car and pick your order up. BAM!


The Home Depot also has a blog you can follow, called The Apron, for updates, in-store tuturials, and sales.

"What color best represents me?"


Great question! And the truth is ANY color! But I understand how it is hard to choose on a color SCHEME (i.e. color theory: the choice of colors used in design for a range of media, style, and appeal.)


I think the first thing to do when you are stuck in this spot is to decide what MOOD you'd like to create. There are PLENTY of websites that go over the psychology of colors. I believe that this is a KEY factor to figure out before have-atting the bathroom with a bright orange (which will wake you up, that's for sure.)


Paint Quality Institute - for a simple, straight forward appoach to getting the basic moods of the primary colors.


In that bathroom for the Home Depot project above, I chose a Blackberry Harvest for my accent wall, which is the deeper purple tone and Schoolhouse Slate for the other walls, appearing as a light gray tone. I chose the purple because it is more of a femine and royal color. By making it darker, it makes it a little bit more masculane (for the man in my life; if you don't have one, then girl, you make it as girly as you like!) I was also thinking of adding images of more hardwear, or cars, or machinery in black and white and in b&w frames. Then I wanted some fresh lavender in vases to add a lighter pop of color and a wonderful scent. They say that the color gray is a "dark state of mind." I tend to disagree, though. Gray is my favorite color. It's not black, it's not white, and it matches everything. Maybe it is leaning towards "gloomy" but thunderstorms are my favorite weather. 

Visually, we usually need something that helps us see the colors together before we buy gallons and gallons of paint to start these projects. 


I have found my new FAVORITE iPHONE APP!!!


Sherwin-Williams - has a free app that lets you either download a picture or take a picture and then you choose what color in that picture you like and it will match the color to one of their hundreds of paint colors! You can choose three different colors for each picture, save it, then find a store closest to you to grab those paint colors. 


Snapfish - After you pick your paint colors based on a sick picture you took, get your picture printed on canvas for $35.

 Design Seeds - Go check it out! The woman behind the wonderful website has worked many different jobs (inspiration for the direction my life is heading!) which have all led her on this journey of passion for color hues and blogging. 

Pinterest - I am so addicted to this website right now. It's a more organized, personal version of Google. I have boards for DIY, Dream House, Sister's Room Ideas, and Space Ideas.

This image above was found off of Pinterest. I added it to one of my boards where I can look back at it and be reminded of creativity that'a in the world and how easy we can make everything personal for our own spaces. 




There are infinate websites that I have been checking out and following to help inspire not only me and my space, but also trying to find ideas to share with my family and friends and you guys. These sites are few of the faves.


A world of colors based off beautiful images and the simple things in life is free for the taking right off the web! There should be nothing stopping us from finding inspiring ideas and following through with creating an elegant, personal, intimate, and vibrant space of our VERY OWN!