Gingham Mini Vases; the easy way and the hard way

Turn little bottles into mini vases with some gingham touches. One way is easy, the other is a little more time consuming!

gingham mini vases
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Do you ever embark on a new craft project all full of enthusiasm?  "This is going to be the best thing ever", "I can't wait to see how good this looks" only to find when it's finished that either

a) it's an epic fail

or

b) it's massively overcomplicated

Today I'm going to share something I tried that comes in to the b) category - a massive over complication. Luckily I make these mistakes so you don't have to. Plus the good news is, I am also sharing the quick and easy method!

Back in April, as part of a pinterest challenge I shared some buffalo check or gingham painted jars.

Oh my goodness, I was so happy with these jars, they just turned out the cutest! 

I thought I would expand the idea, try out a little more painting on glass idea, mix it up a little.

I had some very sweet little mini bottles that were originally favours at a wedding we went to a few years ago, they had some sort of pink glittery alcohol in them - I forget what. Of course I couldn't leave the wedding without at least a few of these (empty) bottles clinking around in my clutch bag could I? That would be very rude as well as wasteful!

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Since then the little bottles have come in handy for rooting spider plants and geraniums, for mini vases when a bloom breaks off it's stalk, that kind of thing. 

My brilliant idea was to give these little bottles a painted gingham makeover just like the jars, but this time I thought I'd mask off the top and bottom with tape and only paint the design on the middle section. 

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Allowing the paint to dry between layers the whole thing probably took about a hour.

Excited to see the fabulous results I carefully pulled off the masking tape.....

Ah! 

painted gingham mini bottle case

It's cute but it looks EXACTLY like a strip of gingham fabric or ribbon is wrapped round a bottle! 

So THAT'S what I did next.

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To make gingham mini vases the easy way you will need:

  • a strip of gingham fabric or ribbon

  • a mini bottle

  • scissors

  • a little bit of tape

  • 30 seconds

Wrap the fabric strip round the bottle and secure with the tape.

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Honestly can you tell the difference? Or rather, can you tell which one took over an hour and which one took less than a minute? 

Gingham mini vases
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easy pink gingham mini vase
gingham mini vases

I learn't my lesson here, the original painted jam jar idea works because it's the whole jar covered in the design in a way that would be difficult with actual fabric.

If you want a simple design just keep it simple!

Do you ever find you've over complicated things or is that just me? 

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