Bottle light Decoupage Tutorial

 One thing that I noticed a lot when I went to various craft markets before the Pandemic hit was the number of decoupage bottles. Some were just for decoration and some had lights in. The price varied greatly. I thought (like most crafty people do) I can do that!

A couple of months later at the W.I. craft club, the Member who organises the crafts brought in a couple of these bottle lights she had made to show everyone along with some other items as she was setting up her own business and was going to be selling them. A few of the other ladies asked her what she used and she said that she had just used acrylic paint and then I thought she said varnish. Ok, I thought, those are simple things to get hold of so I went out and bought the supplies I needed from The Range, with the exception of the lights which I bought from Amazon.

My first attempt was a disaster, I painted the bottles with a brush and when they had dried the brush lines were slightly noticeable.  The decoupage tissue went on without any problems and at least covered some of the lines. When I applied the acrylic varnish, the bottle was rather shiny and the brush lines were a lot more prominent. I thought that was going to be that, I had given it a go and I could not see how to not have the brush strokes showing. 

As luck would have it a few months into the lockdown, the W.I decided to get Hayley to do a demonstration of how she made her bottle lights over Zoom. It was then I found out about using a sponge.  I decided not to give up and gave it another go just before my Sister and Sister-in-Law's birthdays in October. This time it was a success and I gave them as presents which they both really liked. I made a few as presents for Christmas as well as a couple for myself.

I thought a few weeks ago it would be nice to have a couple which could be on display all year, not just at Christmas and I thought I would share how I make them in case anyone else fancied attempting them.

Supplies you will need

• Clear empty glass bottle or jar
• White acrylic paint. ( I got mine from The Works)
• A household sponge (you don't need to use all of it, I cut one into thirds)
• PVA or decoupage glue
• A napkin with a design you like
• A brush suitable for using with glue
• Fine glitter (I used white)
• Ribbon or string
• Lights which have a 'cork' style top and are battery operated.
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Actually making the bottles does not take a long time, it is the drying time that drags things out.

First use the sponge to dab the acrylic paint onto the bottle. You would be better with 2 coats so you will need to let the individual coats dry thoroughly.

Next you will need to separate the napkin layers. You only need the layer with the design on. I tore round the edges on my as I found unless you have a design with straight lines rough edges look better.

 You then paint the glue onto the bottle where the design will go and stick the napkin on, using the palm of your hand rather than your fingers to press everything down.

Once this has dried then you take your glue and add the glitter to the glue and mix in. This gives a shimmer to the white paint and acts as a varnish protecting the napkin and the paint.

Once your bottle has dried then you can decorate the top and feed the lights into the bottle. In this instance I just used some pink dotted ribbon as it fit in with the spring theme. I have used other ribbons, flowers and string on other bottles.

I hope I have inspired you to look at things that you might be able to do yourself and actually give it a go.

If you decide that you might like to sell them then you will need to check if the napkin design is subject to copyright. If you are making them for personal use then you can use any design.