Crafty Gift Saturday!!

Oh how fun today is!!! Crafty Gift Saturday :) As much as I love using my Cricut to make cards, I LOVE altering items and doing things a little differently :) Todays project is no exception ~ we get our hands a little sticky with this one!!

I decided I wanted to dress up a bottle of wine to give to a girlfriend for Valentines Day ~ but I didn't want to just plop it in a wine bag this time - I wanted to change things up a bit. So I decided to literally gift wrap the bottle LOL!

I got out some hemp twine (you can buy it at Walmart for 5.97 cdn so it would be cheaper in the U.S.), Wacky Tacky Tape, my Mod Podge ( I grabbed the gloss and the glitter kind) a foam brush and a nice ribbon. I also chose a wine bottle that had a beautiful silouhette.I started at the bottom of the bottle and using my Wacky Tacky Tape (I used this a lot this week LOL!!) I glued my starting point down and started to wrap around the base of the bottle. My original plan was to wrap the entire bottle and then cover it in the Podge....but as I was wrapping, the twine wasn't sitting flat on top of each other and I was getting holes showing the green bottle underneath - yuck. So I took the Wacky Tape and ran it down the length of the bottle 5 times, then as I wrapped around the bottle the twine had something to keep it in place.I wanted to break up the twine a bit on the bottle so I added ribbon near the bottom...yep laid down some wacky tape first to hold it in place and wrapped the ribbon around. Then I just started wrapping again above the ribbon, working your way all the way up the neck and I added another piece of ribbon at the top.Then I decided I wanted to add more bling and attached some really cool ribbon I bought at wallmart in the fabric department (the lady just cuts it off the spool).Once I had it all wrapped I wanted to seal it to make sure the twine would not move, and to seal the bottom of the bottle so it wouldn't start unravelling there. I chose to use the Glitter Mod Podge (big surprise LOL!!) to dress it up but the regular gloss would have been just as nice.I'm not sure if you can see the glitter, but it's there and it's really pretty - as you turn it the light catches the glitter and it shimmers :)Next I wanted to hang all sorts of Valentine themed cuts off the bottle. Most of these aren't even tags - you can just cut out any image from whichever cartridge you like - STORYBOOK has some great scalloped cuts, Lyrical Letters, Home Decor, Home Accents - OH! Hello Kitty would be cute too! So just select whatever cuts you prefer and keep them under 3". To attach ribbon you could punch a hole and thread it through - really easy :) I think it's the ribbon and the layering of all the tags that makes it look so festive. How I did my cuts was to put all my images on 1 page on my Gypsy - Don't forget I'm using Gypsy Wanderings and Wild Card as my only 2 cartridges this week (and Gypsy Wanderings ONLY works on my Gypsy). I welded a few circles to some images to make rings to loop my ribbon through. I placed all my paper on my sheet and only had to cut 1 time. Once I cut out all my images I put them together and dressed them up a bit.
I also got out some craft wire and threaded beads onto it, wrapped the edges closed and shaped it into a heart.
I plan on making some of these wrapped bottles for myself and sticking a tapered candle into the top. How cool would that look with wax dripping down it like they have in those little cafe's in Paris? (without the v-day tags of course lol). You could bring these outside in the summer and place them around your patio....the uses for these could be endless :) I hope you had fun with my crafty gift Saturday!

I have included the G file for the tags on my blog, as well as every project this week - just go to DESIGN~CREATE~INSPIRE.

Sadly......today is my last day as Miss January on Holidays with the Cricut..... I am so glum! It was unbelievable to spend an entire week with such a wonderful group of people. Each and every one of you who took the time to comment on my projects ~ THANK YOU. I mean that from the bottom of my heart, I have read every single one. For someone who is shy, sharing my work was very nerve wracking....but everyone's supportive and kind comments kept encouraging me everyday!

Thank you so much Joy, Melanie and Tammy ~ to be able to post on your blog all week has been such an honour ~ you ladies have a lot of work on your shoulders and I now fully grasp just how much you all put into this WONDERFUL BLOG!

You girls are fantastic - your readers/followers are amazing and I had so much fun - I hope I made you all proud as Miss January, take care and big hugs to you all from Canada :)