Slipcovered Bottle

I have been wanting to try to "kopy kat" Sherry and her French wine bottle makeover over at  "No Mininmalist Here" blog.

 I don't have an authentic French wine bottle to try to
 add writing to so I attempted to cover a bottle
 by looking closely at hers to see the details.

               Sherry's bottle is covered in burlap of some kind

 and really you don't SEE the bottle very much.
Another blogger (so sorry, can't remember who) noted that a
Livingston wine bottle looks quite French-y.

  I got my husband to partake of some Livingston wine
 so I could have a bottle to work with. 

Sherry's bottle also had cording at the top and bottom of the bottle so I just got some twine that was close to the color of my burlap.

  I got a yard of burlap for $4.  I ended up only needing a piece
 21" x 12" so I have plenty left to do more bottles in the future. 
 "Drink up, Tom".

I went to Graphics Fairy website to look for a label to copy. 

They were beautiful but too intricate for me to be able

 to transfer onto the burlap with a paint pen.  I just got a French words off the site (which I have NO IDEA what it means) and selected a font on my computer to have something to copy.

Sherry used tracing paper to transfer her writing to the bottle's cover.  I tried that, but my burlap was so rough that I could not see the transfer.  It would probably work better on a smoother burlap.

During the daytime, sometimes I will hold something I want to trace up to the glass window but I was working on this project at night so I used the old "Lamp Under the Glass Coffee Table Trick"...how archaic in this time of Shilouette machines, etc. 

     After I got the main part of the letters on the burlap, I just
              went back over the letters again with the paint pen. 

I thought it would be easier to do the writing before I did the sewing.  I put right sides together and sewed a seam in the burlap to make a tube to slip over the bottle.

To get rid of the excess burlap in order for the cover to fit close to the top of the bottle, I made darts in the cover.

I pulled the pins out as I got to them on the sewing machine.
You could also do this part by hand sewing.

I was hoping to not have to cut the excess material off to keep it from raveling but it was too fat, so I did trim off the excess material from the darts.

The easiest  part of the project: using a glue gun to attach some twine around the top of the bottle.

Use your glue gun to attach the bottom of the burlap cover to the bottle.  I did it in sections so it wouldn't be too much burlap on any one side...north, south, east, west...then northeast, southwest, etc. Don't make the mistake I did and pull it down too tight...that made the writing "droop" in the finished product. 



I stood the bottle up in my box of glue gun supplies to keep it steady and easier to work with. 



               The most time-consuming part of the project:
                 attaching twine to the bottom of the bottle. 
          (My camera battery decided to "die" at this point of the                project but just start attching the twine high enough
       up that you will cover the bottom part of the burlap cover.)

      I tried to keep the glue on what would be the underside

of the twine so that it would hopefully not show as much

                        when he bottle was standing up. 
         You could go on and cover the whole bottom of the jug  
          with twine if you would like to...I decided it wouldn't show.

OK, so now my camera battery has charged up and it is morning and time for more pictures. 

Another tip: don't be lazy like me...take the label OFF the bottle before covering it.  I didn't think it would show through but it does if you look close. 

More empty bottles for more slipcovers.

When I try this again, I would make the writing smaller
 and work to get my darts more uniform.
  Also, the twine could be "aged" with watered down
 brown paint if it looks "too new" for you. 

Springtime Table Top Ideas

My nesting birds vignette got asked to go to a party! 
 A friend of mine had agreed to hostess a table at her
 church's ladies dinner and she needed a centerpiece
 for her table.  I offered her my birds and their 
nests and she accepted.

  Here is what the birds looked like at my house...

... here is my post about the vignette...Springtime Nesting

...and here are the birds and their nests at the ladies' dinner...

I like the way she added the spanish moss around the birds.
  It's almost like all the birds are in a larger nest.

Here are some more pictures of her centerpiece... 

The whole fellowship hall at her church was filled with
 other tables (I think I heard 60 in all) that other ladies
 in the church were hostessing.
  "Hostessing" involves not only the centerpiece but
 also bringing all the china, silverware, glasses, 
placecards, etc. that will be at "your" table. 

I went to the church the afternoon of the event to take pictures 

of other table tops to share with you.

The name of the event was "Teacups, Tulips and Tutus"

 (I'm not sure if there is some significance or what that 

means if anything) but some hostesses carried it out

 in their centerpieces...

Who knew you could find bunny rabbits in tutus?

This next table was done by a very creative lady who

painted the canvas tablecloth and chair covers...

I am loving green jars right now.  This one was very pretty...

Check out the table "cloth" on this table...

This table smelled divine with the rosemary in the silver 

julep cups.  I overheard that the governor's wife was going

 to be sitting at this table for the event.

Note the clever way this hostess used a vase within a vase

 to hold the tulips away from the candy.

This hostess also used candy on her table.  The cupcake 

stand in the center will have the cupcakes added

 closer to dinner time.

The bunnies on this table reminded me of the hydrangea

 paper punch eggs I have seen on several blogs...

About half the tables used flowers as the main centerpiece...



Here is a close-up of the little silver goblet holding 

an egg shell with a azalea bloom in it.

The hostess that did the painted canvas tablecloth and

chair covers earlier in this post also did a more colorful

 table setting for another table.  Here are the painted 

canvas chair covers she did along with the take-out

 containers holding flowers pinned on the back.  

This tablescape was beside the speaker's chair on the stage.

And last but not least, a centerpiece celebrating the

 reason for our Easter season...

I hope that these lovely tables at the church dinner will

give you some ideas for Spring table settings at your home!

Cake Pops

When learned of cake pops and  "googled"  how they were made, the recipe sounded crazy but simple.   I got over-confident and
offered to bring cake pops to an office birthday party
 even though I had never made them before.

  Here is basically what you do:

Bake a box of cake mix according to the directions in a 13" x 9" pan then cool.

After cooling, break the cake up into small pieces in a large bowl.

Add a whole can of frosting to the crumbled cake.

Mix well so the frosting is evenly distributed.

Refrigerate the mixture for 15 minutes or longer.

Form the cooled cake/frosting mixture into (about 1") balls.

Melt some Wilton candy wafers in a small bowl according to package directions.

Dip the end of a sucker stick in the melted candy about 1"

 then immediately stick it in the top of a ball.

This acts as a kind of "glue" to hold the stick in the ball.
Do a sucker stick in candy for each ball.

Refrigerate the balls with sticks in them for 15 minutes or longer. 

Melt more candy wafers in the small bowl so that it is at least 1" deep. 

Take the balls out of the refrigerator a few at a time so they will stay chilled until they are dipped.

Dip each ball on a stick in the bowl of melted candy.

Make sure that the melted candy comes up to the stick so that when it hardens, it will help hold the cake on the stick.  I tried other methods of dipping/coating but this little bowl worked best for me.

 As you dip more pops, you will need to add more candy wafers to the bowl and then microwave  it in 15 second intervals to  

melt the newly added wafers.  Stir between heatings. 

To get excess melted candy off the ball when you bring it out, tap the stick gently  on the side of the bowl.

I ended up with candy on the stick because I didn't clean off a
 place on the side of the bowl to tap.

 For a better look, clean off a spot to tap.

If you are going to add sprinkles of any kind, put them on the cake pop as soon as you finish coating it with the candy melts so that they will stick.  If you are going to drizzle, you can wait until the candy hardens.

There are two ways you can display your cake pops.

  One way is to let the cake part

 of the pop to rest on the plate with the stick in the air. 

 Since this was my first attempt at the cake pops, I made most of them too big I think (they were about 1 1/2").  

 It was easier to keep the cake on the stick to

 let them be "bottom heavy" and just sit on a plate.

Just be aware that the bottom of the cake pop will be flat.  

I don't think that really matters. 

 I had to "fool with" the more rounded pops longer to make the candy coating look  uniform all around the cake part so,

  for me, the "bottom heavy" pops were quicker. 

The second way to display the cake pops it to insert the stick in styrofoam.  

If you want this look, be sure you have your styrofoam ready when you take the pop out of the melted candy so it will keep

 its rounded shape while it is hardening. 

 You can decorate the styrofoam block if you want to or stick it in a pot  and hide it like I did here with crinkled paper.

I hope to do better decorating next time I try this.  

This is what I ended up taking to the office birthday party. 

 I ran out of time because I was having a hard time getting the dipping part right. This pitiful looking sheet cake was supposed

 to be the basis for more cake pops but it got late and I had lost my patience with the pops. 

A few of the cake pops turned out decent so they ended up being the cake decoration.

 It TASTED alright and that's all most folks cared about.

  The pictures near the beginning of this post were of pops that sat in the refrigerator  without candy coating 

until I had more time to work on my technique.