Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Cran Judy-Ann

Think back to your 21st birthday and what are the things that you are most excited about? Of Course. You are now legally allowed to drink and buy alcohol. If you are the "ideal" 21 year old, you have not experienced too much in drinking and are pretty new to this whole world of mixed drinks. So often the main question that stumps many new drinkers is the simple "What would you like today?".

I often laugh when I think about a story that my Brother-In-Law tells about his experience in ordering his first drink. He, like many others was a good ol' boy. He honestly didn't drink until he turned 21. Let me set the mood for you. He had just turned 21 and he pridefully walks into a bar with his head held up high. Excited to order his first real drink, and anticipating that they will ask for his ID so he can whip out that license and prove his age! Here we go..... he sits down and begins to look around. Oh wait a minute..... He needs a man drink. Not beer, not wine, but liquor! It wasn't long until the sweet older woman came over and said, "What can I get for you today". Without even thinking, he says very confidently "I'd like a jack and crown please!". You can imagine the smile that came upon her face as she heard this adorable youngin' just order a glass of Jack Daniels mixed with Crown Royal. For the rest of the night, the bartender made it her mission to introduce him to a multitude of different drinks, explaining what liquors compliment what mixer.

This story is what inspired me to do my next project. A very close family friend was turning 21. She is one of those girls that just has a lot of spunk to her. You know, sweet and spicy as I like to call her. Anyways, her 21st birthday party was coming up and I needed to do something different. She isn't the girl that I could just buy a bottle for and say enjoy. She was a girl that I needed to bring to the bar and have her try every drink known to man kind until she found what she liked. Instead however, after looking around, I came across a picture on Pinterest that had a bucket, that had small whiskey bottles and cigars nicely presented.

What a fabulous idea! I loved everything about it. The creativity, the options, the customization that could be done. This was it! Later that day I went to the craft store and came home with the following.


*1 Oval Black Metal Pail (as shown to left)
* 2 Large Packages of Tinseled Pipe Cleaners
*2 Large Packages of Colored Pipe Cleaners
*Alphabet Stickers (Found in Scrapbooking)
*Number Stickers
*Decoration Stickers (I used Candles & Swirls)
*Glitter Spray paint
*Medium package of decor rocks / gems
*Large square of Styrofoam
*21 Wooden Thin Dowels or Kabob Sticks
*21 Assorted 50ml. sample liquor bottles
                                                               *Long Tinsel Swirls 
                                                         *Bunch of Color Assorted Silk Flowers 
Step by Step
  1. Take the pail on a covered surface and put it upside down. Use the glitter spray paint and evenly coat the pail to add a sparkled effect. You can use as little or as much as you'd like.
  2. Using an exacto knife, cut ovals out of the styrofoam square. Layer the styrofoam ovals into the pail. You will want about 3 layers in the pail to be able to uphold the weight of the bottles. 
  3. After the pail has dried from the paint, Decorate the pail with the stickers that you have chosen. (For mine, I put wrapped around 21 candles from front to back, and scattered the swirls to add extra decor. You may also want to use a ruler to help center and space the writing on the front. 
  4. Organize your color patterns and figure out what colors you'd like to stick with for the main theme.
  5. Take one tinseled pipe cleaner and one colored pipe cleaner and begin to tightly wrap around the wooden dowel. (If you want, you can try to match the bottles colors). Begin wrapping about 2 inches above the bottom of the dowel and continue your way up. I used 4 pipe cleaners per wooden stick. 
  6. Once you get towards the top, choose the bottle that you would like and begin to tightly wrap around the neck of the bottle. You will need to wrap it around once, then tie in between to make sure it's tight. The tighter you can wrap it the better the bottle will hold. 
  7. Repeat step 6, another 20 times. 
  8. Once all 21 bottles are wrapped and tied to the wooden sticks, you can begin to put them into the pail by pushing the stick into the styrofoam. You can arrange the bottles many different ways according to the overall look you are going for. 
  9. After you are satisfied with your arrangement, you can add in some tinsel swirls for an additional decoration.
  10. Arrange the silk flowers around the rim of the pail.
  11. Lastly, take the package of the decorative rocks and empty them into the pail to cover the styrofoam and add additional weight to hold the dowels in place.
..... And there you have it. A perfectly unique 21st Birthday gift!









24 comments:

  1. super cute idea..my son will be 21 next year so I may make him a manlier version of this

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  2. I just have a question. How did you prevent the bottom of the mini bottles from sliding off the dowel? I understand that the bottle necks are attached with the pipe cleaners at the top but I'm still thinking the bottom will want to slide to the right or left of the dowels and not stay centered. Was this a problem at all?

    Thank you so much for sharing this project! It's a great idea and many different mini gifts can be used to attach to the dowels! Love it!

    ~Michelle

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    Replies
    1. I actually did not attach the bottom of the bottles to the dowels. To ensure that the bottles stayed centered without sliding, I just wrapped the tops with the pipe cleaners as tight as I possibly could, and some I even used an extra pipe cleaner to give it a little bit of extra support. Thanks for looking!

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    2. My daughter made one like this once, she used wooden skewers and attached the bottles with a hot glue gun. worked great.

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  3. Awesome idea! I'm going to use this for my sisters birthday..she's gonna truly enjoy it. Thanks for sharing.

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    but this piece of writing is actually a fastidious article, keep it up.
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  5. do you sell these?

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    Replies
    1. Because of certain alcohol laws, I cannot ship a pre-made one, however, I can ship everything completed so that all you would need to do is add the miniature liquor bottles if you'd like.

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  6. How much for the kit?

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  7. where could i get mini liquor bottles? i've been looking, can't find any :(

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    Replies
    1. I found most of them at our local liquor store. Possibly try an ABC liquor.

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  8. Where can I find the Tinsel Swirls?!

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  9. Hello, I am interested in you maybe doing a pre-made basket like this one for me. How could we go about doing this? If you could email me at hailee_elliott@baylor.edu that would be great!! Thank you!

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  10. What size bucket did you use.

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  11. Around how much was it for all the tiny bottles? I really want to do this for my boyfriend's 21st on october 1st. You have inspired me!! lol

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  12. How much (roughly) did it cost you to make this? Such a great idea!!

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    1. Roughly I believe I spent around $45 - $50.

      Thanks for looking!

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  13. Your basket looks great! Great gift idea for several occasions! Thanks for sharing!

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  14. Can you tell me what size pail you used or where you got yours from? I'm having the hardest time finding one! About how many inches is it across/high?

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    Replies
    1. I bought it from Michaels arts and crafts. It was plain black and was only about 6 inches high. I lined the bottom with styrofoam though so that the dowels wood stay in place. Hope that helps! Thanks for looking!

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  15. Hi, there is someone on Facebook claiming your work as their own. The FB is little owl celebrations. I knew it wasnt theirs because I had seen it on Pinterest and it led me here.

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