Wine time!

Get double the fun from your wine intake when you turn old bottles into illuminating homewares with this fab project!

Turn wine bottles into lights

INFORMATION Materials

• Old wine or champagne bottles • White sticky backplastic • Small sharp scissors or a scalpel and cutting mat • Pencil • Printer and A4 paper • Font (we used Populaire) • Fairy lights (we used 20 white LED silver wire micro battery fairy lights)

Skill level: &BTZ

These quick and easy wine bottle lamps are as money-efficient as they are effective. We got our bottles for free as they were leftover from a party, so ask friends to save their empties! We used sticky back plastic to create the wording for our lamps, which is a speedy way to achieve the look and perfect for anyone nervous of painting on glass.

How to make the bottle lights

1 Wash out the wine bottles in hot soapy water, and soak if necessary to remove any labels. Don't be tempted to scrape the labels off, as you may scratch the glass.

2 In a text program like Word, type 'Let there be wine' and print onto A4 paper (We used Populaire Medium font at 132pt). On the reverse side of the print-out, scribble over the lettering in pencil. Place the lettering, right side up, over the sticky back plastic and draw around the letters to transfer them to the sheet. Cut out each letter and don't worry if there are pencil marks showing on your letters as this can be wiped off later.

3 Place the letters against the wine bottle where you'd like them to be. Use a pencil to mark the top and bottom position of each letter to help you apply them straight.

4 Peel off the backing paper from the sticky back letters and stick the first word 'Let' to the bottle. Attach the ‘H’, ‘E’ and ‘R’ from 'There' underneath the word 'Let' so they are lined up centrally below. Apply the ‘T’ and other ‘E’. Add the 'Be' and 'Wine' to the other bottle in the same way, positioning the ‘I’ and ‘N’ of wine lined up directly below the word 'Be'.

5 Clean off any pencil marks from both the bottles and the lettering with a slightly damp piece of kitchen towel.

6 Feed the fairy lights into the bottles, using the handle of a wooden spoon to push them down if necessary. Bend the wire lead over the lip of the bottle to prevent the lights slipping out. Insert batteries into the block to finish.