15 Ways to Reuse Glass Bottles

I have been addicted to glass jars and bottles for a little while now.  Obviously, I am a crafter, so I mostly use my bottles and jars for storage of buttons, beads, washers and other little parts.  I also put pens, markers, scissors and paintbrushes.

To reuse glass bottles and jars, clean them out thoroughly prior to using them in any of the following projects.

Here are 15 great ways to reuse glass:

1. Put them on a tree!

Legend of bottle trees:

According to Wikipedia, Glass bottle trees originated in Northern Africa.  Superstitious people believed that a genii or imp could be captured in a glass bottle. Legend had it that empty glass bottles placed outside the home could the evil spirits at night, and it would be destroyed the next day in the sunshine. The practice of hanging bottles in trees became widespread first in the Southern states of the United States and now more widespread, where they continue to be used today as colorful garden ornaments.

 

2.  Use them in mosaic art.  

One of the most amazing and beautiful examples of this is at Philadelphia's Magic Gardens.

click on the photo to go to my entire set from Philadelphia's Magic Gardens

3.  Use them as vases.  You can use beer bottles, wine bottles, old spaghetti sauce jars or any other glass bottle.  

Here's a cutely decorated vase tutorial:

 Paper and Ribbon Water Bottle Vase Tutorial

4.  Use as a candler holder.  Put a taper candle in an old wine bottle or put a votive or tea light in an old mason jar or cleaned out spaghetti jar.

5.  Make "gifts in a jar."  There are tons of books and recipes out there.  Basically you layer all the dry ingredients of a baked good or soup (and many other things), tie on the recipe and give it as a gift.

6.  Use for storage for your office or for crafts.  Separate out small items - paperclips and thumbtacks for your office or buttons or beads for your crafting supplies.

7.  Make terrariums!

How to make a terrarium from a repurposed glass bottle.

8.  Reuse your glass bottles and jars as drinking glasses.

9.  Put a pump on top and use as a soap dispenser.

10.  Reuse your glass bottles to make an oil lamp.

11.  Make sand art.

12.  Use them as windows in your home.

13.  13 Coolest Things Made from Glass Bottles from the Daily Green

(The above photo is from that post.)

14.  Keep your collections in jars:  marbles, buttons, etc.

15.  Reuse a baby jar to make a cool pin cushion.

I hope I've inspired you to reuse glass bottles!  What do you do with your glass bottles?  Are you going to try any of these now?

Recycled Newspaper Puffy Heart

I first found this Recycled Paper Heart Valentine project on Art Projects for Kids. I was doing a search for recycled Valentine's Day projects.

I just loved this project. You can check out the Art Projects for Kids site, or see my own take on the project here.

1. I started out with 16 sheets of newspaper (the original project called for 8, but I always go bigger for everything! I made 4 hearts with this amount.) 2. Cut the newspapers into strips about 1" wide.

3. Cut the strips into 1/2" pieces.

4. Place the pieces into a bowl.

5. Cover the pieces with hot water and let it soak for 24 hours. (I know, it's tough, but you really have to wait...)

6. The paper starts to look like a pulp or a big blob of paper. Work though the blob with your fingers and tear up any large lumps. The Art Project for Kids blog states it should look like gray oatmeal, and that is a good example.

7. Once you have gotten rid of the lumps, squeeze out the extra water.

8. Add white glue to the mixture at a rate of about 1 unit of glue to 4 units of pulp. (I just eyed it and mixed it in and went from there.) Work the glue through.

9. Form a ball.

10. Form into hearts on wax paper.

11. Let dry for several hours.

12. When you can pick up the heart, wrap it with string pulling firmly to make an indention and tuck the ends into the back.

NOTE: I decided to try lace because that would be pretty. It didn't work. After the hearts dried, the lace was too loose. Make sure when you wrap the string (if you do that) you pull it tightly.

13. Let the heart dry completely. This took a couple of days with my hearts.

14. After it is dry, paint the entire heart with a thick layer of white acrylic paint.

15. Let the white paint dry and paint with a thick layer of colored acrylic paint. I used both pink and red. You can experiment with different painting techniques, colors, glitter, etc.

16. The Art Projects for Kids project suggest a spray of glossy sealer. (I didn't do this.)

17. To add a string or ribbon, you can pretty easily use an awl to poke a hole through the heart.

18. To get the ribbon through, I just took an extra piece of wire and pulled the ribbon through the hole.

19. Enjoy your Valentine's Day decorations!

These will make really cute decorations! I like things to be relatively plain and clean, but you can get really creative with these hearts.

I think you could really do this with any shape. I am thinking eggs for Easter, trees for Christmas, etc.

Great way to reuse newspaper in a fun way!