June 25, 2010

Blooming Water Bottles!

Give your water bottles an upgrade! This is a store display of water bottles cut and painted to become beautiful blooms. Thank you to the district administrator who took this picture and sent it to me because she know I love green ideas!

Want to try it? Me too!

8 comments:

Mary said...

Oh WOW! Yes, I have to give this a try. Thanks for posting.

Phyl said...

What a coincidence! I also recently took a picture like yours so that I could try it myself. I saw the flowers were hanging in the entrance to an arts/music event that was organized by my college-age son, before he left for Africa. They were so pretty, and like you, I like 'green' ideas. I'm just wondering if kids could safely cut the bottles themselves or if it has to be a more adult-done activity. And I wonder, will the recyclers still take the rest of the bottle after it has been cut? Let me know, if you try it before I do!

Unknown said...

I had two kids try it the last day of school but they are pretty advanced. They did a good job! Maybe the older kids could do it. The water bottles are NOT sharp when they are cut. I want to fill up the planters in the front of the school with these so I don't have to water the plants!

Phyl said...

I'm back again :-)
Can you possibly give a 'play-by-play' of how they/you did it? Mostly, how did they inititally cut the bottles to get started? And where do the colors come from? I've never seen bottles most of these colors.

Unknown said...

I made a slit in the bottom of the bottle so they could get their scissors in. They cut off the base of the bottle. Then the cut from the open base down to the neck (where the cap is). Straight lines looked good. Some made their cuts more petal like with curves. Finally we colored with sharpies. If I could I would spray paint them with that plastic spray paint but I can't deal with the fumes right now. So simple! Now for stems. . . Let me know what you do for stems.

Anonymous said...

Would acrylic paint work?

Unknown said...

I don't think so but try it! Let me know!

Anonymous said...

I painted the bottles first by pouring in a little tempra paint, putting the lid back on tight and shaking the bottles. Then removed the lids and let them dry from 2 days. Then cut into flowers. worked pretty well.