Pixie in A Bottle for The Upcycle Blog Hop

Brillare – a Pixie surrounded by shiny things – in her bottle.

Welcome to the Upcycle Blog Hop hosted by Tanya, the Scrappy Scavenger. If you’re doing the hop and are here from Dawn’s blog, Strawberry Delights, then you are in the right spot. If you just arrived here and would like to start from the beginning of the hop, please go to Tanya’s blog, the Scrappy Scavenger.

For this hop, Tanya asked us to create something by re-purposing materials. In other words, use something in a way that’s different than its original purpose.

A close-up of Brillare, surrounded by eye glass chains, earrings and gems.

I decided to re-purpose things I’ve picked up at thrift stores and yard sales, including finds from Swapper’s Day (e.g., a spiral Christmas ornament, mis-matched earrings, eye glass chains, crystals, a key & beaded fringe), a wine bottle and the wooden base from a mannequin I used for my letterblock tray project.  The main element of the project is a small fairy or pixie, only 2.5″ wide and 2.5″ tall!  I came across 6 of these and knew I wanted to use one in a project like this. If she catches your eye, I put the remaining ones up for sale in our Ephemera & Found Objects shop.

The most difficult part of the project was taking apart the small links in the chains I found so I could re-assemble them to make the streams of beads that surround the pixie. It was also a little tricky to take the Christmas ornament, cut it in half, flatten it, and suspend the streams from it so it was balanced.

A small book (about 1″ x 1.5″) tells the story of Brillare – the pixie that loves to collect things that sparkle.

Everything is glued in placed using Glossy Accents. I even used it to glue the bottle back together. I covered the seam with silver foil tape.

To finish off the piece, I create a mini book, that tells the story of Brillare – a pixie that loves anything that sparkles. She mischievously goes around and picks up anything shiny – as long as it’s small enough for her to carry –  and takes it back to her home.

There are more pictures at the bottom of this post so you can see the process of creating the bottle. But, let’s get to the blog candy!!

I am so excited to be launching the newest part of our site, a growing online Shop,  during this hop, I wanted our blog candy to be extra special. So, on Monday, 9/19 at midnight EST I’ll pick a winner at random who will be receiving our Your Story package. The winner will be able to create personalized books, albums and journals with ease! Your Story is a thermal book binder with unmatched versatility and is perfect for creating unique gifts, memory books, and a host of paper crafting projects. Our package prize includes the following:

12″ YourStory book binder / laminator machine 12 – 9″ x 11.5″ Laminating Pouch 3mil 12 – 4.5″ x 6.5″ Laminating Pouch 3mil 1 – Paper Trimmer 1 – 8.5″ x 11″ Binder-Black Leather Texture Portrait no window 1 – 8″ x 8″ Binder-White Linen Texture w/window 1 – 4″ x 6″ Binder-Black Linen Texture no window 1 – 8.5″ x 11″ Binder-Brown Leather Texture Landscape no window 1 – 12″ x 12″ Binder-Black Leather Texture no window 1 – User Manual

Your Story Package Prize Giveaway

Since our blog is still relatively new, we need followers. We promise to post interesting articles, product reviews, project ideas, and tool tips. So, to enter this giveaway please do the following as many of these 4 things as you can by 11:59PM EST Monday, 9/19:

1. Join Our Site or Follow us, please
2. Post a link to www.createNcraft.com on your blog, Twitter, Facebook or Google+ (you can use the buttons at the bottom of this post).
3. Tell someone about our giveaway and encourage them to enter too!
4. Leave a comment on this blog post and tell us where you posted our link and how you spread the word about the giveaway.

Preparing to cut a clear bottle. The green bottle was a “practice run.” I’m in the kitchen, and I’m Italian, so I have a “mopina” over my shoulder. No reason why…it’s genetic I guess! LOL!	Scoring a clear bottle. The first step of the cutting process.	A clean score line is important for a clean cut. Never go over the line more than once, never start another line.
If you want a really clean cut, drizzle boiling water over the score line, then drizzle cold tap water. Using a hammer to tap the line to separate the bottle is unlikely to yield a clean cut.	Recent finds at a flea market were perfect for the project; a spiral Christmas tree ornament, a few odd earrings, a necklace and two eyeglass chains.	The bling chains attached to the half of the spiral ornament, glued in place with Glossy Accents, drying.
Using chopsticks to hold the spiral and chains in place to dry was a great suggestion by Joe Morgan.	The Christmas tree ornament was the perfect framework for hanging the chains, after it was cut in half and the blue beads were removed.	The interior of the bottle is complete – the pixie is in place, the chains are hanging and the top’s closed with a wooden disc and door knob.