Add Some Mood Lighting

Happy ‘we made it to Friday’, my friend! Wow, what a week. Let’s hope this weekend goes smoothly. I’ve been wanting to try this technique for a while, and finally had the chance, after I saved & cleaned up a couple of clear wine bottles. I used alcohol inks directly on the bottle for decorating, and then added some mini lights! These really help add some mood lighting to your room.

WITHOUT THE LIGHTS ON

I should clarify, this photo below is with the room lights on, but not the string of fairy lights inside the bottle being switched on.  I found these cute light strings, with the battery housing made to look like a cork!

I admit – without the fairy lights, and in a brightly lit room, the bottle doesn’t look too impressive! Especially with my well-used black note-board behind it.  However, this lets you see what I did.

PAINTING THE WINE BOTTLE

First, it’s important that you remove all labels, and scrub off any remaining glue from the outside. Next, be sure the inside of the bottle is thoroughly cleaned as well; you don’t want the smell of stale wine drifting out – that would kill the mood! Now, I’ve used an empty wine bottle, but if you want to do lots of these, you can probably pick up glass bottles from any big-box craft store, or Amazon, to use.

Next, choose your colour palette; at least 3 colours, plus a metallic. I chose a blue, a green, a dark pink (raspberry) and gold mixative. Next, start adding your ink one at a time on the bottle, dripping from the top, down.  Continue to do this, overlapping in areas, until you’re happy with the colours. I found that it  helped towards the end to insert the fairy lights, and switch them on, to give me a better idea of the look.

Here’s how the bottle looks, with the room lights on, and the fairy lights on.

TURN OUT THE BIG LIGHTS!

My Scottish heritage is showing, here; we always refer to the main room light as ‘the big light’!  So, turn off your ‘big light’ and see how your decorated wine bottle looks!

Isn’t this pretty!?  In person it’s even better, but the photo gives you an idea of how it looks.  The darker areas are the dark blue ink; you can clearly see the green and the raspberry.  The gold shows best in the areas where it was layered over the lighter colours.

SET YOUR OWN MOOD LIGHTING

The great thing about this project is you can customize your own colours! Whether you want to coordinate with your home décor, or set the mood for a special party, this is lots of fun. I really wanted to share this project with you, so I haven’t sealed the inks yet. I’ll be spraying the bottle with Kamar from Krylon; this sets the inks so that they won’t run. Next, I’ll spray the UV Protectant, finished by the Triple Thick Glaze.  These extra steps will all seal and protect the inks, as well as add shine to the exterior of the bottle.  If you are not planning on keeping the bottles, then these extra steps aren’t necessary.

These decorated wine bottles would make great gifts and party favours.

So – how would you add some mood lighting? What colours would you choose for your repurposed bottles?  I’d love to hear – leave me a comment on this post!