DIY Painted Bottles

DIY PAINTED BOTTLES

The last few days I've been spending my precious freedom by doing something slightly quirky and surprising: painting an accumulation of glass bottles which were leftover from a house party. It started off as an experiment of sorts, as I'm part of the design team for The Closet and we've been trying to focus on sustainable design, using recycled, unwanted bits and bobs and giving them a new lease of life. I'd been keeping an eye on the leftover bottles in our kitchen for a while, wondering what could be done with them, and if I could put them to good use at all, especially as part of the shop design. I previously mentioned in this blog post, how in my eyes, I view the world as being full of creation, the tools needed to create, and the potential of what is still waiting to be created. There's so much possibility, potential, inspiration. These bottles were no exception. To me, it always feels a shame to throw away such fantastic resources like bottles, boxes, jars, packaging, when it could all be re-used, given an injection of pazzaz and turned into something completely new and amazing, with a whole new purpose and function. There's just something so beautiful and wholesome about it, as does it ensure originality and a whole lot of quirkiness, which is right up my street. A lot of the time I'm never quite sure what I'm going to use resources for, but I love to store them away for safekeeping for a later date anyway. You never know when the urge to create will strike!

Alongside being able to create completely unique, handmade, beautiful new things, another thing I love most about doing these random DIY projects is the actual painting and design itself. It's just so much fun! 99% of the time I'm careless, clumsy, pay no attention to detail and I have the attention span of a fish. However when I'm creating, I seem to suddenly become exceptionally good at all those things. It seems to draw all those qualities out from some hidden place inside of me, and I don't even mind because I take such pride and joy in the art of creation. It seems to do something funny but amazing to my soul. I also find creating, especially drawing and super especially painting, to be so, so, so relaxing. It's like the whirlwind of thought and stress settles and I become lost in my own little world, and as you can guess I'm very, very happy. Especially with doing a more science focused degree, which I also love so much and find so interesting, though it stimulates my mind in other ways, I find that taking the time to create is often put on the back burner. Likewise I'm so much more busier these days, that even having time to myself, to do whatever I please, is often few and far between. There's always something that needs doing. And that's why with these few days of freedom, I quite literally jumped at the chance to do a bit of creating, unleash those stored up creative juices, and have fun making pretty things. Chances like this don't come around too often,

I was thinking earlier about what makes me truly happy in life, and I realised that lame as it sounds, the simple joys like painting, drawing, being creative, baking, listening to music, reading, laughing, watching a film, photography, being with loved ones, are what makes me feel happiest and most content. That's when I feel like I'm loving my life and appreciating it the most. And now, having done this little painting project, I can't help but feel that I should definitely start making more time to do these things that make me happy. Or maybe I should stop spending ages on social media, or stressing out and working myself to hard, and instead do things like this. And hopefully I will. In the mean time, I wanted to share with you a little DIY step-by-step guide to creating your own painted bottle, because it's soooooooo easy, so much fun, so relaxing, so cool and also pretty damn cheap. They make the most beautiful, special and unique decorations and gifts, and I promise you that you'll love creating them as much as you love the finished result (and showing them off to people too). Take a look and see what you think, and even if you've never done this kind of thing before, or you don't consider yourself to be a creative person capable of painting or designing, again I promise that you can do this! As do I challenge you to throw caution to the wind and find out just how capable you actually are. Make yourself proud. Live the bottle painting dream.

Also I hope you appreciate my super cool, super professional photography with my 2MP mobile camera. You know me, keeping it real and all that.

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-STEP BY STEP GUIDE-

001. Buy some acrylic paints from an art store or somewhere like Wilko's/ The Range/ a supermarket/ WH Smiths, along with some paintbrushes, unless you already have them! They're often very reasonably priced and will last a long time. I've had the ones above for two years!

PAINTBRUSHES: A medium sized brush for larger coverage // a small sized brush for detail

PAINTS: White and black paint are an absolute must to provide a consistent base layer, as well as for adding detail. Then get your core key colours like red, blue, yellow, which can be mixed together to create other colours, or get a pack of paints with a mixture of colours.

002. Whenever you have pre-drinks, friends round for drinks, go out for drinks, finish using a bottle of something, or you friends finish with their own bottles, make sure you keep it. Even if it looks a bit weird (eg. I've been known to put finished bottles in my bag after I've been out for drinks), just put the bottles to one side and you'll soon start to build up quite a collection. (It's also a good excuse to drink & party too *wink wink nudge nudge*)

003. Before you begin, wash out the bottle with water and leave to dry. Then try and peel off the labels as best you can. Most are stuck on surprisingly strong so you're unlikely to peel all of it off. Soaking the labels with water is the best way too peel off as much of the label as possible.

Once the bottle is dry, fill a little tub with water, get your paint brushes ready, lay down some kitchen towel on the surface and choose what colour you want your base to be. You can either use a very strong, pigmented, opaque colour, like a brown, dark green, blue or black, or likewise a complete white base. If you want a lighter base colour, such as in the picture above, mix a little bit of white paint with a colour of your choice. 

Paint the bottle all over, as neatly or as mismatch as you want. If you want it to look more authentic and rugged, be messier with your painting. Think lots of short strokes all over, some cracks here and there. If you want it to be neater, try and aim for continuous strokes right from the top to bottom.

004. When the bottle has had one layer of paint, leave to dry on a piece of kitchen towel (the paint should dry pretty quickly!). Again, if you're aiming for an authentic look (eg. like the yellow bottle in the photograph above), leave it at one coat however if you're aiming for a clean and consistent look (like the dark blue bottle), wait for the bottle to dry and then add a second coat of paint in the same colour.

005. Once your bottle is dry, it's time for the fun part- THE DECORATION!! Anything and everything goes! Think of the bottle as being your canvas and the paint brush as your magic wand. Get inspiration from Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, and tailor your decoration to who the bottle is for. 

IF IT'S FOR SOMEBODY ELSE: What are their favourite colours? What kind of person are they? What are their interests? What kind of colours and designs would go with their house/ room? Do you want the bottle to be a representation of yourself (eg colours, patterns, designs that they'd associate with you), or be specialised to them and their tastes? Is the bottle signifying an important event or milestone, or is it a little sweet gift?

IF IT'S FOR YOU: What are your favourite colours? What colours would match your room/ house colour scheme? What colours match the bottle colour? Do you prefer intricate designs or more simplistic designs? Are there any particular artwork or artistic styles that appeal to you? Pictures, music, quotes, books inspire you? Do you want the bottles to form a collection, and if so, will there be a common theme, or will each bottle be individual?

006. Put the colours you want to use on a piece of kitchen towel, refill your pot of water and get your little paintbrush ready (and a cup of tea/ coffee as painting fuel). If you're painting from an image, have it up and ready, whether it's a print out or on your computer. If you want to make sure everything is absolutely perfect, or you're trying to paint something more complex like an image or lettering, it's a good idea to loosely outline your design in pencil, but if like me you're a fan of winging it, just go for it and see what happens! You might go for a very simple, minimalist design, or you might go for the full whammy. You might have your design mapped out to a T, or you might just let your imagination go absolutely wild. 

HANDY TIPS: Use one paint at a time, and fill in all areas of the design that need the colour // Clean the brush whenever paint starts to build up, as it gives you more control over your paintbrush, and gives your paintwork more clarity // if you make a mistake do not, repeat, do not freak out. I've always found that the best thing to do is work with it. Turn the mistake into something else, or work with it // For more control when doing precise and intricate details, use the finest material you can, for example in the starry design you can see below, the stars were done using a stalk from a punnet of grapes! // Use different materials to add texture your design and to create interesting effects // If you do your design over a few days, keep the pieces of kitchen towel with paint on them, so you can recreate the paint shades at a different dates. // Accentuate details with white paint to make them stand out more. // Always remember where you last applied paint, so that when you hold the bottle you don't smudge anything!

007. Here are some designs that I've been working on recently, some of which will hopefully be featuring in the shop design of The Closet project, that I'm a part of. Personally I really love pattern work, and I'm quite inspired by Japanese/ Aztec/ American Indian artwork, as well as bright, vibrant, bold colours. Anything that's beautiful, colourful and pleasing to the eye!

008. Once your bottles are finished, you can use them as simple decoration for your bedroom or around the house. You could give them away as a gift. You could use them as decoration for a wedding or special event.You could take them into your workplace to brighten it up. You could put a candlestick inside the bottle (though be careful of the melting wax!. You could put a rolled up, handwritten note inside it and give it to someone special. You could buy some fake flowers (eg. Wilko's do them really cheap!), and again use it as decoration or give it to someone you care about. The possibilities are endless!

Cool Things In My World

COOL THINGS IN MY WORLD

Dear readers, something amazing happened today. A miracle happened. I finally finished my exams. This hectic, seemingly eternal period of time, in which I've had to research and write two assignments, and revise for two hefty exams, has finally come to a close. This strange stationary existence where all I do is work, revise, eat, sleep, feel guilty for doing fun things, is over for three whole days. For three whole days I am liable to absolutely nothing and no-one. And I can't quite stress to you how amazing this feeling is. The last time I felt this way was the very beginning of September. From now till then this has been non-stop, one thing leading into another without a pause for breath. Well now, said pause has arrived, and I was so happy when I walked out my exam that I couldn't stop smiling the whole way down Oxford Road and Curry Mile, all the way to Chunkyz where me and my friends went for celebratory chicken. Absolutely living the dream right now. I don't even know what to do with myself, there's just so many possibilities. It feels like the world is my oyster. I can lie down on the floor and do nothing. I can sleep all day and all night. I can bake enough cakes to feed the entire British population. I can binge watch movies and Vogue UK's You Tube channel (have you seen Alexa Chung's series?). I can paint and draw enough pieces of art to fill a gallery. I can go anywhere I want and spend all day there. I could even write an autobiography of my life if I wanted to. The possibilities really are endless.

So to celebrate this three day vacation where I really genuinely will be luvin' lyf 2k16, I thought I'd put together a little post full of cool things that have happened in my world recently or will be happening in my world soon. It's partly a reminder to myself that there's more to life than revising the length of vocal folds and watching inspirational TED videos about stammering on You Tube, and partly a little window for you to look into my life and see what random things are going on. I also created a rather nineties-esque retro picture to go along with it too. Funky times man. Can you tell how happy I am right now? Anyway, enough of me rambling. I'm going to go put my onesie on and fist pump the air in happiness for a while, then I'm going to watch some more British Vogue. And in the meantime, I hope you enjoy looking at my little list. Much love.

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*COUGH, COUGH, AHEM...*

001. GETTING A TICKET TO SEE THE LAST SHADOW PUPPETS

By some kind of supernatural miracle, I managed to get myself precisely one ticket to see The Last Shadow Puppets at Sheffield's City Hall in April. I don't really understand how it happened, I haven't told anyone, nor have I figured just how I'm going to get there or back. Though I do fully understand the nice little dent said ticket has made on my bank balance, and naturally I'm beginning to question why I will happily spend £40+ on a concert ticket but not 79p for some tomato puree. But anyhow, I missed TLSP last time round, eight long years ago, because at the time it was Jonas Brothers all the way, and over the last five years Alex Turner has become my favourite artist of all time, as do I think TLSP are just simply marvellous. So I guess this was inevitably going to happen and understandably I do not regret my decision in the slightest. It's going to be a cracker of a night.

thelastshadowpuppets.com

002. THE SPECTACULAR NOW

Recently I've taken to googling 'indie films' when in the mood to sit down and watch a film, because I'm an absolute sucker for them. I don't know what it is about them, but I just love the honesty, the realism, the way they focus on the mundane, normal aspects of life and somehow make them seem so much more beautiful. They make you appreciate and see the world in a different way, as do they change the way you perceive life. The Spectacular Now is one of those films. It's your relatively typical teenage romance but with a few hidden twists, fantastic acting which adds to the believability and a heavy dose of realism to make sure things don't get too predictable. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDTBLSkUmYk

003. ME, EARL & THE DYING GIRL

This was another indie film I found the other night, and had been meaning to watch for quite a while. It's about a young man named Greg and his childhood best friend Earl, both of whom are keen film-makers. The film focuses on Greg's re-telling of the pivotal time in his life when he encountered and become good friends with fellow classmate Rachael, who is struggling to come to terms with her recent stage 4 leukaemia diagnosis. I loved the unconventional way the story was presented, and accompanied by Greg's moving narrative. I loved the beautiful sweeping views of Pittsburgh, the unlikely and uncanny relationships formed, the premise of the story, the bitter-sweet honesty, the endearing wit, humour and cynicism, the thoughts it leaves you with. It's such a fantastic film and if you're looking to watch something a little different, I'd whole heartedly recommend you sit down and watch, and see what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qfmAllbYC8

004. EARLY(ISH) MORNING RUN IN MANCHESTER CITY CENTRE

At the weekend I decided to finally get back into running in Manchester again. In the summer I got so into it, and my love for running became firmly embedded, however when I began placement in September, I found I just didn't have the time or the energy to keep it up. And after placement, I suffered from a major case of cba, and it was a real shame because I loved running so much, yet I just couldn't summon the motivation. However over the Christmas break, I started to venture out again on the odd evening, and surprised myself by getting back into running very quickly. It's like my body remembered everything, and miraculously all the hard work had paid off and the results had stayed put. How fab. So when I came back to Manchester, I decided I'd best continue that, and on Saturday morning I ran into and around the city centre, then back again, running further than I had originally intended to. Although it wasn't my best run, I still hugely enjoyed it, as am I sure the residents of Manchester enjoyed seeing me bright red and emphasising it with my 'I'm red enough said' top. It also lead to me devouring two nutella waffles when I got back, courtesy of my new waffle maker, and spurned a blog post too, so pretty win-win situation.

005. THE CLOSET, MANCHESTER

Now this one is pretty exciting. For the last four months I've been involved with helping to set up The Closet, a sustainable student-ran clothing shop opening next week (aaahhhhh) on the UoM campus, next to Academy One. It hasn't been the easiest of tasks, but we've managed to get there somehow, and there are some absolute gems on our planning committee too, who deserve all the thumbs up in the world for their hard work and dedication. The Closet will be open at select times every week, and sell an amazing variety of clothes, kindly donated from the general public and local businesses, for brilliantly cheap prices. We will also be running events throughout the year and collaborating with student ran businesses too, but the best part is that all money raised will be donated to the local mental health charity Manchester Mind. Likewise we will be promoting the fantastic work they do and the importance of mental health. If you're in the area on Wednesday 3rd of Feb, 6pm onwards, come along to our cracking open event to find out more, and from then onwards the store will be open so come pop in and take a nosey.

https://www.facebook.com/theclosetmcr/?fref=ts

006. GOING BACK, RACHAEL ENGLISH

I've been reading this for the last week or so, and bulk read it till the end whilst eating breakfast the other morning. Partly picked because of the gorgeous cover design, it turned out to be a rather enjoyable, nice, easy read. The story initially begins in the 1980's, and focuses on a young Irish girl named Elizabeth Kelly, who's enjoying a summer in Boston with her friends having just finished university. One day she meets a young local man named Danny Esposito, and the two fall deeply in love. The story then moves onto the present day, when things haven't turned out quite how you might expect, and I loved finding out how the story progresses and ultimately resolves. A really beautiful endearing read.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Going-Back-Rachael-English/dp/1409145255

007. CHINESE NEW YEAR

So the Chinese New Year has finally come around, and 2016 is the year of the mighty monkey, which just so happens to be my favourite animal. It also sounds a million times cooler than the animal that marks my own year of birth: the rat, no sorry, to be specific, the fire rat. There, that sounds better. Celebrations will be occurring from Thursday 4th of February-Sunday 7th of February, and judging by the stunning decorations already adorning Manchester's many buildings and landmarks, it's sure to be a wonderful and rather spectacular celebration!

http://chinesenewyearmcr.com

008. CREATING DESIGNS FOR MY BLUBOCA STORE

Yesterday I abandoned revision for most of the day, and instead decided to spend a good few hours updating my Bluboca store and creating lots of new designs after a loooooooong time which didn't involve doing any of that. I always say this, and I still maintain it: exam time is always when I get most productive in all other parts of my life. This time round is no exception, clearly. And boy has it been fun! Doing my designs was so therapeutic, and I forgot what an exciting process it is, bringing an idea to life, perfecting it, and then seeing it appear on all these different products. So cool! And if you want to see some of my designs, just head on over to my store and take a little look.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/bluboca

009. CHEESE FONDUE A LA JUSTIN BIEBER

Naturally every time fondue is mentioned, I have to reference Justin Bieber due to his mention of said food in his hit song 'Boyfriend', so apologies for that. The reason I mention fondue, is because one of my best friends/ house mates came back with this beauty. A fondue maker complete with little dipping sticks and everything! Tres coolio. We gave it it's first outing the other night, using our trusted cheese fondue recipe from Christmas, dipping little pieces of toast into the cheesy goodness and subsequently venturing to some kind of cheese-related heaven. As you can imagine it was quite amazing, especially as we played Monopoly after. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ28iueCS9Y

010. 2AM IN THE CAT'S PAJAMAS

This book is just amazing. Something else entirely. I picked up from Manchester Library just before Christmas, purely out of curiosity. The plotline sounded so bonkers and intriguing, as did the title seem rather perplexing too. I simply had to give it a go, and subsequently I finished within the space of a few days. I just couldn't put it down! The story occurs in Philadelphia around Christmas Eve, where we meet super sassy, 9 year old jazz enthusiast Madeleine Altimari, who is recently mourning the loss of her mother, Madeleine's teacher Sarina Greene, who has recently come back into contact with her teenage crush Ben again, and owner of legendary jazz club, 'The Cat's Pajamas', Jack Lorca. Little by little their lives start to intertwine, with all paths hurtling forwards to one very specific, unifying moment in time. Marie-Helene Bernito expertly weaves the three individual stories together in such an effortless, intriguing, beautiful way as does she write in the most striking, unique and mesmerising manner. I was just hooked. I've never read anything like this novel before. It was simply fantastic, a real gem, diamond, work of art, insert any magnificent noun and it should do the job. And if you're wanting to read something a little unpredictable, something a little different, and something that's makes you remember how joyous the act of reading can and should be, I strongly urge you to give this book a read. It's soooooo goooooood.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-M-The-Cats-Pajamas/dp/1447254449

Photo- The Great Waterway

011. STARGAZING

Next week I'm doing something absolutely amazing, something that I've always, always secretly wanted to do. I'm going stargazing. Apparently at uni we have an Astronomy Society, who will be putting on the free event in the Physics building (maybe Brian Cox will make an appearance!), and I can't lie, I'm absolutely buzzing. I'm such a sucker for stars. Sometimes when I'm walking or running at night, I literally do so with my head at a 90 degree angle because I'm so in awe. I want to take it all in, yet it's such a huge, so magnificent, that it never feels like enough. Sometimes being on Earth really is just like being inside your own personal planetarium, and it's crazy how something so beautiful can be a product of nature's very own creation. How lucky are we to have a sea of glittering lights every single night of our existence (well when it's not raining and cloudy, which is 99.9% of the time here in Manchester). It's incredible, and come said stargazing night next week, I will be the person in the picture pointing. It's practically me anyway.

An Ode To Spring

AN ODE TO SPRING

I've been meaning to share these photographs with you lovely readers for what feels like forever. I took them back in the summer, at a gorgeous country park near where I live back home in Derby, and I was so proud of these photographs yet I never got round to doing anything with them. So today, whilst I'm meant to be revising, I quite foolishly thought that right now would be the perfect time to do just that, share these photographs. Obviously there is absolutely no logic in this reason, and if anything, it confirms that I have been right to send myself off to the library every day, in order to get any work done. But with exams almost, almost coming to a close, and with the winter months also approaching the point where they metamorphose into spring, I thought it would be kind of nice to brighten up the atmosphere, inject a bit of a colour, life, soul, beauty, raise those spirits and look forward to the future. I don't know about you but even looking at just one of these photographs is enough to make me feel a million times more optimistic about everything, alongside giving me hope that everything is going to be alright. Isn't it funny what a photograph can do?

Naturally with my birthday falling in May, spring is one of my favourite seasons, alongside autumn, and I adore how it feels as though the world is waking up again after a long, dark, foggy sleep. The way everything blooms and bursts into life once again. The sunshine, the warm but not too warm weather, the soaring blue skies, the brighter evenings, the vivid greenery, the accentuation of life in all its joy and wonder, and of course, not forgetting most importantly, the flowers. Oh the flowers. Flower power has always been my thing. I think they're the bees knees (pun somewhat intended). Until a few years ago I didn't fully appreciate just how beautiful, intricate and stunning flowers are, likewise I didn't understand why men always buy women flower bouquets. What was one meant to do with them? Surely chocolate would be more worthwhile? Yet I don't know, something changed. Suddenly I started seeing flowers in a different way. Suddenly I couldn't help but notice their elegance, marvel at their structure and sheer diversity, take great joy and fulfilment just by being around them. I thought they could quite possibly be the most beautiful thing about this world, bar stars and the sky and architecture and natural landscapes and of course, food. I suddenly wanted to start capturing their intricate detail so that I could share that hidden, complex beauty with other people, and to better understand the mechanics of nature's creative design. 

Flowers are awesome, which is why alongside the photographs below, I've got a million other photos in the collection which I'll hopefully get round to showing you dear readers one day. But till that day comes, I really must get back to the old revision, so I hope you enjoy marvelling at these photographs as much as I do, and I'll be back in a few days time, a free woman!

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-THE BEAUTY OF CREATION-