Altered Art Collage Bottles

I've been saving, collecting, hunting, and buying doo-dads, trinkets, and bottles for awhile now. Ideas and concontions have been brewing, and I've finally pulled some together to create these art pieces. I wanted to do a Mystery Workshop with this idea for the Vintage Room gals, but I just couldn't wait to get some done to display in my bedroom on the shelf over my tv. Now I can enjoy them every night instead of staring at them as empty bottles just waiting to be transformed into a bottle of wishes, wisdom, secrets, love potion, hopes, dreams, and more...

The bottle of Wishes was my first creation. It's a small blue tinted glass bottle I picked up at an antique shop or flea market. I filled it with a half strand of silver beads, some start confetti, small blue glass pebbles (the kind for floral arrangements), a wheat penny on each side, and a small handful of handmade origami wishing stars I made from strips of old music paper. I stuffed the top closed with a spool of varigated blue thread that I was able to remove the cardboard center from and force into the opening. I glued a minature well to the top and tied some blue seam binding ribbon and tan chunky thread around the neck of the bottle. Finally, I hung a blue rhinestone clip-on earring from the ribbon, and glued on the copper word tiles to spell "wish."

The bottle of Wisdom came next. I put a few cream colored pearls and amber toned seed and bugle beads inside, along with several black and yellow feathers. I cut the Wise Old Owl image from a vintage set of animal rummy playing cards and glued it on along with some metal wings and a plastic light bulb. The stopper of the bottle is a metal drawer pull with an ivory owl pendant glued on top. I used a mix of fibers and lace around the neck of the bottle and stuck in a few black stick pins. Finally, I attached a small tag to the loop of the owl pendant to dangle and say, "Ideas & Imagination take flight" on one side, and WISDOM on the back.

The final bottle I've completed so far is a bottle of Secrets. This one doesn't have much inside because the majority of it is collaged on the outside with music paper, the stamped word "secrets" and the phrase "with a smile, and a bit of mystery" pieced together from words cut out of a book, a little girl image, pompom trim, and a plastic dog. I used vintage flowers and pearl sprays, along with a few stick pins and pink lace around the bottle neck. The stopper is another drawer pull coated in silver glass glitter (there is also a little sprinkled inside the bottle) with a pink rhinestone earring piece on top.

Ta Da! More bottled creations to come...