Colorful Mini Vases

Painted mason jars, wine bottles, and so on and so forth have been soooooo popular on Pinterest lately. But what's the point of a vase if you can't put water in it without making the paint run?

These vases are recycled bottles—the green is a white truffle oil bottle, the pink is a bottle my hens dig up in the yard, and the purple is from a reed diffuser air freshener.

I got all labels off by soaking in water and then using glue gone. The truffle oil bottle was difficult.

Supplies:
Cleaned bottles
Alcohol inks
Acrylic clear coat
Cotton balls
Paper plate
Small dowel

 

For the small bottle, I used butterscotch (yellow) and wild plum (pink) inks. I applied a bit of each to a cotton ball...

 

And dabbed onto the bottle.

 

And dabbed and dabbed—but not on the bottom. I did the threads as best I could, but did not worry about them.

 

After letting the bottle dry for awhile, I sprayed it with acrylic clear coat. Though the alcohol inks won't run in water, the bottles did feel a bit tacky without a sealant. I held the bottles upside down on a dowel to spray all sides evenly. Three coats, each 10 minutes apart.

 

The only flowers I have? Dandelions! The green bottle is butterscotch with stream (blue), the purple is wild plum with stream.

So many possibilities! I only have 1 set of alcohol inks, and there are a whole lot more colors I would love to try. Rubbing alcohol will clean up any mistakes.

Ideas: using alcohol on a q-tip to draw a design, trying a stick-on stencil with more ink or alcohol, using just one color to create a solid effect, stamping a design, maybe even trying to add gold leaf of some sort. So many possibilities...


Linked to:
Take-A-Look Tuesday 
Fluster's Creative Muster 

Cat Mat

A cat mat for cat food—this pattern is from the Summer 2011 issue of Stitch magazine. This was my first time using iron-on vinyl. Yes, there really is such a thing! And it worked great. I won't know how it holds up, since this is going to my aunt on the other side of the country, but it was easy to use. This project went surprisingly quickly once I dedicated some time to just work.

Fabrics used: a Kona blue solid (from Joanns) and a light blue non-Kona solid (from Joanns) and a variety of scraps and fat quarter bits from my stash. Managed to find several birds, cats, and fish prints to include. Backed with non-slip fabric.

Rather than use double-sided tape to hold the vinyl-covered patchwork and backing fabric together, I used quilt basting spray. I tested it first (to make sure the vinyl wouldn't disintegrate or refuse to stick). It worked just fine.

fully pieced

cutting the iron-on vinyl

ironing

with vinyl applied; appliques used fusible web, mouth is embroidered

cutting to shape

cats for scale

Smock of All Ages, #2

I made this one for my mom. I did not take a picture of me wearing it, nor did she model it after unwrapping it. And now looking at this picture I see this print is a little busy—I can barely even see the neck ruffle.

The main difference is that I accidentally bought single-fold 1/2" bias tape—the pattern calls for double-fold 1/2", which is what I used for smock #1.

The single-fold 1/2" turns into 1/4" when folded again—so it was a little hard to work with. But I think  I like it better.