From Trash to Treasure:

I may have mentioned this before, but I have a thing for good containers.  And a half-way built in thing for recycling.  I feel a little guilty that my recycling gene is not whole-way as it was when I was living in Eugene ... a city that makes recycling easy.  Still, when it comes to good jars, bottles, coffee cans and things like that, I do save and reuse them.

Take these apple juice bottles, for example.  Did you know that it takes 10 pounds of rice to fill up three of them?  I don't have a picture of the ones filled with salt, but it takes 2 apple juice bottles to hold 10 pounds of salt.  I like using these plastic bottles, because they are space efficient in the cupboard, and mice cannot chew through them.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Good job, Kathy Matthews.

Then, take these good wine bottles.  I am going to fill them with homemade syrup and homemade kahlua (coffee liqueur).  I decided this week to decorate them with using acrylic paint and stencils.  I assembled my clean jars, labels removed, as well as the stickiness that held the label.  Some dishwashers just take the labels right off.  Not my new one though, it gets too hot and bakes them on.  So, I soak them in hot soapy water and use a table knife to scrape off the labels.  If you still have some stickiness, you can use Goo-Be-Gone to get the rest of it off.  Anyway, I got everything lined up:

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I was making this up as I went 

along, and just used what I had on hand.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I mixed up white and red to make pink.  I used sticky tack to hold the stencil on to the bottle.  The stencil is plastic, so it was easy to use between applications.  I ended up going with a narrower paintbrush though.  I found that the thicker the paint, the better.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I started with the back of the bottle (there are dots or numbers there) and used the sticky tack to anchor down the stencil.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

As I was painting, I put a paper towel around the neck to hold 

on to the bottle so that I wouldn't get any fingerprints on it.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Make sure the paint has a chance to set before removing the stencil.  You can let the bottle air dry if you are not in a hurry.  Or, you can use the hair dryer, moving the bottle back and forth, so it doesn't get too hot.  It doesn't have to be completely dry, and the stencil is easier to clean if it is not.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Wash and dry the stencil in between uses.  That way you will not get paint where you do not want it on the next bottle.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Here are some of the stenciled bottles, and the labels that I worked on yesterday.  I don't think I will attach them though, I will instead tie them around the neck with raffia.  I am going to try and seal the pink paint with clear spray so that it will not come off easily.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Mom brought me the canning jars that Gwen gave me.  I washed them in the dishwasher, and they are airing dry before I put the lids on them.  I will use them for canning, for my cookie mixes and for soup mixes.  

Like I said, I am a sucker for good containers.  The gumption part is putting something in them.  I looked up some good syrup recipes on the internet.  My new favorite resource website for such things is Frugal Living: Hillbilly Housewife http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/category/articles/frugal  I found a great apple juice syrup recipe and another one that looks super yummy.  

I will do a follow-up post on this to show you the finished project. Oh, see all my cookbooks lined up behind all of those bottles and jars?  My Bread Alone book that I won from Becky is sitting right on top!

 

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