Upcycled Milk Bottles

 

My Son buys his milk in milk bottles.

The empties seem to always find there way to me with the phrase 

"Here Mom, You can do something with these great milk bottles",

Why he thinks they are great, I don't know. 

I think it reminds him of living in Miami and having a milkman deliver our milk.

It was fun at first, but when you have 50+, 

they become a headache or at least give me a headache! LOL  

I finally got around to decorating three -

Here's how I did it ~

The milk bottles have writing on them and wasn't sure how many 

coats of paint it would take to cover the non-removable writing.

I  decoupaged on torn pieces of white tissue paper. 

This not only covered the writing well, it added texture

Once covered, I let it sit overnight to dry thoroughly.

I added the plastic cap back on and painted it with white chalk paint.

I wanted an even colored background to work on.

This one I painted purple.

Again I let thoroughly dry overnight.

I chose the smoothest side for the front and 

decoupaged an image of a Mermaid's tail surrounding it with

 aqua, blue, rose copper glitter then again, blue.

I felt these colors coordinated with the Mermaid's Tail 

and added the sparkle I wanted.

Once the front was finished, I went crazy with all types of shells, 

pearls, even some beads.

I started a trail of these that encircled up and around the bottle - beginning and 

ending on each side.  

On the back I found a filigree medallion which

 I attached to an old doily circle and 

added a Starfish charm in the center.

I also used a bit of copper paint on my finger

 to add a touch along any large tissue paper wrinkles that showed.

I surrounded the neck with a wide band of all sizes, shapes and 

kinds of Shells that I had collected over the years,

 from Miami to Alaska.

I made a "bed" of dark midnight blue small glass beads

on the lid and added a large shell on top.

~ The finished product ~

Here are the 3 I made with this same basic technique.

These happen to be available in my Etsy Shop.

more here