Linen, Lace, & Love: DIY: Beer Bottle Candle Stick Holders and Pickle Jar Votives

Reduce, Reuse, Upcycle! We love making old things new again. Both of our Husbands know to ask before they throw anything away. Jess has JJ collecting toilet paper and paper towel rolls, and Brandon knows that jars and bottles do not go in the trash.
For today's "How To's Day" we are repurposing or "upcycling" old beer bottles and pickle jars into candle sticks and votives. These turned out so well that I switched them out with our fancy ones in our display case. You know what they say, "One man's trash..."

Prep tips~

To get the labels off of a glass bottle or jar just run it under hot water, then peal off the paper. Once the top layer of paper is pealed off put the bottle back under the hot water and use your thumb nail (or if you just got a manicure you can use a razor blade) and scrape the excess paper and glue off. It should come off very easily, don't worry about getting all of it. Whatever is left will come off with a scrub brush. Then you are all ready to give it new life.

Step One~

You will need:

1. Take a lace doily and lay it face down on a drop cloth. The spray will go farther then you think, so cover a large area.
2. Spray the doily with spray adhesive. I used Aleene's Tacky Spray from Michaels.
3. Take the doily and center it over the bottle (TIP: if your bottle or jar has seams make sure that the seams are on the side so that they are not seen from the front or back), then place the top down first, and stretch it towards the bottom and lay that down, then work your way out on either side stretching it to ensure it will be wrinkle free.

Step Two~

What you will need:

1-3. Take a small piece of ribbon and hot glue it from the back of the bottle, again making sure to keep it really tight, so that it doesn't wrinkle, and glue it again to fasten it. This is just so that the bottle top does not show after you have tied your bow.(The ribbon I used was left over ribbon from all the Pottery Barn gifts from our wedding. Jess and I have been using it all year! We just iron it and use it again.)

4-5. Take a longer piece of that same ribbon and fold it in half. Then take the middle and hot glue it to the back of the bottle top. Use that as your anchor and tie a pretty bow. (TIP: Remember "right over left, left over right") I was going to cut the ribbon, but I liked the look of the dripping ribbon so much that I kept the length.

6. Drop anything from a tea light to a small pillar candle in the jar, and put candle sticks in the bottles.

and tada...