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| Photo from Simply Thrifty Nails |
I'm not a huge glitter fan, so I tend to skim right over these sorts of items, but luckily for me, other crafters saw potential in the little bottles that contained the glitter:
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| From Mad in Crafts |
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| Submitted by Carissa on Dollar Store Crafts |
Yes, one craft kept the glitter in the bottle, but I'm pretty sure I would have adored a pixie dust necklace when I was younger. At present, I'm not exactly keen on having a mini-bottle necklace (it gives me Angelina Jolie-Billy Bob Thornton flashbacks), but when my mom shared some mini bottles with me, I fell victim to their charm and started brainstorming how else I could use them.
This past weekend I threw a combination birthday/graduation party, which I called "A Night at Le Cirque des Rêves." As you can probably tell, it was a themed party, patterned after Erin Morgenstern's novel, The Night Circus. Once I sort through the scads of pictures, there will be a flurry of posts about all the crafting projects that I did prior to the party (it was a party on a budget, so most things were handmade or bargain purchases). For now, I'll offer up my Pinterest inspiration board as a teaser.
My awesome friend Kathryn helped me generate ideas, make crafts (particularly dozens of paper medallions one afternoon!), and kept our enthusiasm high during the pre-party academic crunch. I wanted to make her some sort of themed thank you gift, and after giving it some thought, I discovered the perfect use for those mini bottles I'd been holding onto: a bead bottle keepsake keychain! :) The only supplies I needed were a mini bottle, some seed beads, a keychain clip, and super glue. Oh, and sorry again for the dark photos - I'm definitely a night-crafter.
Step One: Empty bottles of glittery mess. Dollar Tree had miniature plastic zipper bags of various sizes a little while ago, and I went crazy buying them (they are PERFECT for crafting!). So, I just used a few mini-bags and transferred the contents of each bottle into its own little baggie (because crafting is almost synonymous with hoarding).
Step Two: Add keychain clip. I already had a few of these carabiner-type keychain clips floating around (hoarding pays off!), and they attach to the top of these mini bottles easy peasy.Step Three: Fill with seed beads/glitter/etc. Okay, so I did use some of the glitter. The larger star-like pieces (in the picture above) weren't so bad, and I liked how they sparkled amongst the seed beads, adding to the feel of a captured ambiance (for those unfamiliar with The Night Circus, it's a book about a *magical* circus). The party's colors were, like the Night Circus itself, black and white (with the occasional red accent!).
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| This seed bead collection was a bargain buy from Ross! |
Step Four: Seal bottle. I don't know about you, but my keychains have to be made of pretty stern stuff, else they crack apart the first time they hit the pavement (c'mon, everybody drops their keys). In order to ensure the lid stayed closed tight, I rimmed it with some Gorilla Glue and let it dry overnight.
I gave my friend her keychain right before the party as a thank you, so now she has a little bottle of captured ambiance to remember the night by! I would love to re-use this idea for other events, but I don't know if it would be a great favor across the board (not sure if guys would really like this on their keychains... maybe it would work better as a stand-alone trinket in those cases - especially if the lid was replaced with a cork). It was a really simple, yet still special and unique keepsake from a fun night - win-win!
