DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

Remember when you were a child and you would pick wildflowers and present them proudly to your mom in a soda bottle? The simplicity of a fresh picked bouquet and the opulence of real gold leaf makes these DIY Gold Leaf Vases the perfect gift for anyone! I like to keep recycled bottles on hand to dress up and use for vases. Teachers, my hairdresser, a friend. . . no one is exempt from receiving a pick me up bouquet.

Make a dozen of these beautiful gold leaf vases and keep them on hand for a quick gift or to display your own horticultural achievements!

DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

Ready to make a few DIY Gold Leaf Vases in minutes? Let’s get leafin’.

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

Optional:

Preparing Recycled Jars and Bottles:

Clean out your bottles and jars with soap and water. Soak them to remove the labels. Any gummy label residue can be removed with Lemon Essential oil (my favorite non-toxic glue residue remover).

DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

The lemon oil works faster and doesn’t leave any toxic or drying chemicals on your skin. But, if you don’t have any lemon essential oil on hand, use Goo Gone or rubbing alcohol (be sure to wear gloves or wash your hands immediately after use.)

DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

If there are any date stamps on your bottle, you can remove it with a Q-tip and Acetone based Nail Polish. I can’t help laughing every time I use this trick because I learned it from the Lego Movie! Anyone else remember the Fleece Crested Sceptre of Q-tip and The Pole-Ish Remover of Ni-Eel?

Clean your bottle or jar really well with rubbing alcohol.

DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

Instructions:

Lay your clean glass bottle on a covered work surface (you will make a mess.)

DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

Paint the adhesive sizing onto your glass bottle. Anywhere the adhesive lays gold will stick, so decide if you want to be random or use clean lines.

DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

Allow the adhesive to dry (you can use a hair dryer to speed the process and prevent the adhesive from running and dripping.)

Carefully lift up pieces of the gold leaf and lay them flat on top of your glass bottle. Pat the leaf into the adhesive.

DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

Use your brush to dust off any excess gold leaf. Continue adding gold leaf until all the adhesive is covered.

DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

Wipe off any excess gold leaf flakes with a dry rag and you are done!

DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

Here’s a quick video to show you how the gold leafing process works.

Fill your new gold leaf vases with flowers and enjoy!

DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

Or give them to someone special.

DIY Gold Leaf Vases from Recycled Bottles | Pretty Handy Girl

Leave me a comment to let me know how you like this project. Or let me know if you have another way to upcycle glass jars and bottles.

 

Pin for later!

DIY Gold Leaf Bottle Vases | Pretty Handy Girl

Gold and Marble coasters | Scrap wood | contact paper

Hello Pretty Handy Girl fans!! I am Anika – the girl behind Anika’s DIY Life. As a long time Pretty Handy Girl fan myself, I can’t find words to tell you how excited I am to be a contributor to Brittany’s amazing site and share my projects with you amazing readers every month! You can read more about me here but in a nutshell, I love everything DIY – from building furniture to easy crafts. I also love color, bling and saving money. You will find at least one of these in every project of mine! Today’s project is all about bling and saving money – easy gold and marble coasters.

Gold and Marble coasters | Scrap wood | contact paper

Don’t you love the look of marble and gold together? Here is a secret: it’s not really marble, it is contact paper! I discovered the awesomeness of contact paper when I needed a solution to update the countertop in the kids bathroom of our rental. The contact paper is still holding up perfectly after 5 months. I had half a roll left and have been looking for ways to use it up. I decided it would be fun to make a “marble” tray and these fun gold and marble coasters!

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Instructions:

Step 1 – If you are using precut wood tiles, you can skip directly to the painting step. If not, cut out the hexagon template and use it to trace the hexagons on your piece of scrap wood.

Gold and Marble coasters | Scrap wood | contact paper

Step 2 – Using a jig saw, cut out your hexagon shapes.

Gold and Marble coasters | Scrap wood | contact paper

Step 3 – Sand the faces and edges smooth. It is important to get rid of all the saw marks because you won’t like how they look on the edge of the coaster once painted (ask me how I know. 😉 )

Gold and Marble coasters | Scrap wood | contact paper

Step 4 – Give your coasters a coat of spray primer followed by a few coats of gold spray paint. If you need help deciding which gold spray paint you need, here is a fantastic gold spray paint comparison guide for you!

Gold and Marble coasters | Scrap wood | contact paper

Step 5 – Decide the placement of the “marble” and cut the contact paper pieces accordingly (leaving a bit of overhang on the sides.) Slowly apply the contact paper while smoothing out any air bubbles.

Gold and Marble coasters | Scrap wood | contact paper

Step 6 – Using the x-acto knife, cut off the excess contact paper from the edges.

Gold and Marble coasters | Scrap wood | contact paper

Step 7 – Add non-stick felt pads to the back side. If you want to be totally frugal like me, you can use squares of scrap felt and super glue them to the back. (Pssst… see the back? that’s why you have to sand them really well!)

Gold and Marble coasters | Scrap wood | contact paper

Here’s a video to show you how easy it is to make these marble and gold coasters:

That’s it! You have a gold and marble coaster set. I decided to get whimsical with the gold and marble pattern. You can get totally creative with the shapes of marble and gold on the coasters. Each coaster will be different yet eye-catching!

Gold and Marble coasters | Scrap wood | contact paper

Tie four together with some twine to make a pretty hostess gift!

Gold and Marble coasters | Scrap wood | contact paper

Hope you enjoyed this project! I will be back again next month with another fun project! In the meantime visit Anika’s DIY Life for more fun DIY projects.


~ Read More of Anika’s Tutorials ~

 

Pin for later!

Easy Gold and Marble Coasters | Pretty Handy Girl

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

Are you on a purge mission to get rid of excess stuff? Me too! How about your workshop? Do you have scrap wood you need to get rid of? Yes? Perfect. Today I have a simple tutorial to show you how to make DIY Scrap Moulding Trays.

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

DIY Scrap Molding Trays

These trays are really cute and can be given as gifts and used to corral things together. Honestly, they are now one of my favorite scrap wood projects!

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

Regardless of how you use these scrap molding trays, they are a great way to reuse materials.

Materials:

Optional: Clamps

Instructions:

Cut a 45Ëš angle into one end of your case molding (the longer side of the cut should be on the outside of the molding.) Never used a miter saw before? Watch this video tutorial to learn how to use a miter saw.

Line up the inner edge of the cut against one corner of your base wood. Mark the location of the other corner onto the molding.

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

Extend the line along the molding using a speed square.

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

Line up the mark with your saw blade and cut at a 45Ëš angle.

Repeat for the remaining sides until you have four sides cut with all ends mitered to 45˚.

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

Test fit all the molding sides against the baseboard and make any adjustments as needed.

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

Sand any rough spots off with a sanding sponge.

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

Paint the molding your color of choice. I used a variety of Fusion paints. This is the first time I’ve used Fusion Mineral Paints, but it definitely won’t be the last! They go on smoothly and don’t require a primer. Plus, with a light sanding afterward the paint doesn’t feel chalky.

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

Squeeze wood glue onto the corners and bottom edge of the molding pieces.

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

Set them in place around the base.

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

Nail 1 ¼” brad nails through the molding and into the base.

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

Secure the corners with one or two more brad nails.

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

Time to load up your tray with goodies and give them as gifts.

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

Or use your tray to organize your desk.

DIY Scrap Moulding Trays | Pretty Handy Girl

If you fell in love with the tray with the striped bottom, you can learn how to make striped wood block here:

How to Make a Striped Wood Block | Pretty Handy Girl

Another tray you can make with scraps is this fun Nailhead State Capital Tray:

What do you think? Want to use up your scraps to make some fun trays?

Hello! This is Lindi, visiting again from Love Create Celebrate. I was here a few weeks ago sharing something I made from old milk bottles I found while cleaning and purging. Now I’m back sharing something I made to help organize my life after all of the purging! Concrete projects always seem a little bit intimidating, but this Concrete Jewelry Dish Jewelry Holder can be made in a hour! It’s the fastest concrete project ever!

The big secret?! It’s Makers Mix! This stuff is unbelievable! A simple concrete project is made and sets in less than an hour!

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Materials: 

*You could create this project with a couple of greased plastic bowls, but the Makers Mix mold makes it so much easier.

Instructions: 

Start by mixing your “concrete” with a little bit of water according to the directions on the container.

Grease both sides of your mold with vegetable oil, and pour your Makers Mix mixture into the mold. Fill until you achieve the desired height.

You’ll notice I only filled the container part way. Place the vegetable oil bottle inside of the bowl while it sets to make sure the top of the mold doesn’t rise.

In about 40 minutes, your bowl will be fully set. Yes, 40 minutes! Use concrete sealer to seal and protect the dish if you wish. This is especially important if your dish is at risk of being exposed to water.

Paint your dish any color you like. I used my favorite Fusion Mineral Paints and painted the inside with Midnight Blue, and the rim with Champlain.

After the paint dries, grab your gold leafing pen and etch a design into the bowl. You can free hand a few straight lines, but polka-dots would also look amazing!

In no time at all you have a beautiful homemade jewelry dish! Put it on display in a bathroom, or at the kitchen sink to store your rings while baking.

Your friends will definitely be impressed and ask how to make their own.

This jewelry dish will look perfect in my newly renovated closet! If you haven’t seen the full closet reveal yet, check it out here!

For more chic DIY inspiration visit Love Create Celebrate.


~
view more projects by Lindi ~

Upcycle some old milk bottles or glass containers into these beautiful and chic Glass Etched Vases!

Happy New Year! This is Lindi, visiting again from Love Create Celebrate. How many of you are deep into cleaning and purging mode?! My husband and I have already cleaned out FIVE closets since the New Year! We’re pretty proud actually! lol. When I was cleaning, I came across these old milk bottles and had the perfect idea to DIY them! I can’t wait to show you how easy it was to make these Glass-Etched Vases.

Upcycle some old milk bottles or glass containers into these beautiful and chic Glass Etched Vases!

I’m ALL about quick and easy DIYs. I try to make things that are easy, functional, and that I will be proud to display in my home. Since I didn’t want to purge these old bottles, I found the perfect solution.

Materials: 

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Instructions: 

Start by placing your elastic bands at various angles around your bottle or vase. Make sure that the elastics are tight (so they don’t slip) and flat.

Upcycle some old milk bottles or glass containers into these beautiful and chic Glass Etched Vases! Upcycle some old milk bottles or glass containers into these beautiful and chic Glass Etched Vases!

Using your foam brush, dab the glass etching cream onto the bottle in a thick layer, covering all of the outside glass.

Upcycle some old milk bottles or glass containers into these beautiful and chic Glass Etched Vases!

Once the entire glass is covered, let it sit according to the instructions on your bottle of glass-etching cream.

Upcycle some old milk bottles or glass containers into these beautiful and chic Glass Etched Vases!

When ready, simple run the bottle under a tap to rinse off all of the cream, and remove the elastics.

Upcycle some old milk bottles or glass containers into these beautiful and chic Glass Etched Vases!

I LOVE how they turned out! A beautiful way to display all of those fresh spring flowers once the seasons change 🙂

Upcycle some old milk bottles or glass containers into these beautiful and chic Glass Etched Vases! Upcycle some old milk bottles or glass containers into these beautiful and chic Glass Etched Vases! Upcycle some old milk bottles or glass containers into these beautiful and chic Glass Etched Vases!

If you like chic vases, check out these easy Gold-Leafed DIY Vases too!

Gold Leaf Vase

For more chic DIY inspiration visit Love Create Celebrate.

Lindi Signature~ view more projects by Lindi ~