Champagne for Valentine's Day...Definitely! But, how about a bit of added WOW factor inclusive of a sparkling slipper to drink it from? You are looking at a "Dressed Bottle". Dressed bottles can be decorated for any special occasion: Christmas, weddings, birthdays, anniversarys or just because.
For any dressed bottle you will need:
A bottle : Champagne, wine, spirits, whatever you fancy
Two large squares of tissue paper (As you can see, I used red and black)
A meter square of material (I particularly like using sheer fabric for the shimmer)
A small terracotta pot (the size should fit snuggly over the top of your bottle. I have been know to
take my bottle into Hobbycraft to make sure)
Two variations of wired ribbon (length depends on type of bow you want)
Hot glue gun
A meter of thin wire (I tend to use florists wire)
Acrylic paint
Decorators' varnish (gloss, satin or matt)
A Topper (This is the decoration that sits on top of the bottle. Toppers can be anything as long as it
is not too heavy and not too unbalanced as it has to sit on top of the bottle without tipping
it over) I used a very light weight glittered, mesh shoe I found in TKMax
Other embellishments : I used three red, beadded hearts
The How To:
1) Place the fabric on a flat surface (I tend to work on the floor for some reason???)
2) Place the two pieces of tissue paper at different angles on top of the fabric
3) Place the bottle in the middle of the paper and fabric pile
4) Draw the fabric and paper up the bottle and tie off at the neck with the florists wire (Make sure
that you tie the wire as tight as you can) Then pull the fabric evenly at the top to ensure a tight fit
around the bottom of the bottle
5) Paint the terracotta pot in a colour to compliment your colour scheme. Allow to dry and then
varnish with gloss, satin or matt decorators' varnish
6) Tie your wired ribbons around the neck of the bottle and into bows of your chosing. I often create
bows separately and hot glue gun them to the bottle.
7) Hot glue your topper to the centre of the terracotta pot and place on the top of the bottle
To chill: simply take the topper off and place the whole bottle in the refridgerator.
Then remove the bottle, replace the topper and you have a lovely centrepiece.
To open: take the topper off and open the bottle. Pour carefully so as not to get too much liquid on your tissue paper or fabric.
To display: Once the contents of the bottle has been consumed (Warning: if you give these as a gift, this part is important to explain as people think opening the bottle will ruin it. It won't) give it a quick rinse and allow to dry and then fill the bottle with dry beans or rice to weight the bottle and then replace the topper. Sometimes, depending on how the bottle opens, it will be necessary to put a little Blue Tack or similar stuff inside the terracotta topper to keep it fixed to the bottle.
Storage: These bottle are incredibly durable. Folks have been known to pack their Christmas bottles away and bring them out for table and mantel decorations for years. Just wrap the bottle and topper separately in tissue and store. When you take the bottle out of storage all you have to do is fluff up the fabric and paper and give the wired ribbons a tweak, plunk the topper back on and they look as good as new.
Happy Valentine's Day!
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