Mermaid Altered Bottle

Hi Everyone...

I'm so glad you are here today I have something really cool to share with you.

I have had this bottle for quite some time. I have been envying the altered bottles that I see on Pinterest and have so wanted to do one. To be totally honest I have been intimidated by them. I finally decided to just go for it and it was so much easier than I thought it was going to be...

So let me share my process with you so you can go make your own altered bottle. I mean seriously the possibilities are endless and it can be done in any theme...I personally love mermaid's and I just had this vision in my head...so here we go.

I used a Absolute Vanilla Vodka bottle but you can use any bottle that you have or like.

Art Anthology Products

Art Anthology Gesso
Art Anthology Paints in
Veridian (Sorbet)
Fiji (Velvet)
Tango (Velvet)
Chocolate (Velvet)
Blue Topaz (Gem Stone)

Art Anthology Colorations
Fern Leaf
Cinnamon Toast
Studio Blue
Peacock Feathers
Lark
Grass
Guacamole
Fern Leaf
Juicy

Other supplies.

Gauze
Crochet Doily
Moss (got mine at Walmart)
Miscellaneous Shells (I got mine at Walmart)
Various bits and bobbles, gems, and metal embellishments.
Hot glue gun
3-in-1 Glue

Here are some pictures of the extra little supplies I gather up and used on my bottle.

Ok...so let's get started...you want to layer a heavy coat of gesso on the entire bottle.
While the gesso is still wet start layering on your gauze...pull it apart and place it on the bottle overlapping in some areas. Apply more gesso to the top of this. The gesso is your glue at this point and also your base coat of course.

 In this next photo you will see the gauze applied to the bottle and I've left a "window" uncovered by the gauze because this is where I am going to glue my image. I knew the basic shape I was going for and I didn't want it to be perfect.

Next I cut up a vintage crochet doily I've had. I invisioned it looking like netting and it totally worked. Still using the gesso as a glue I applied it around the top and bottom of the opening I had left and the gesso also covered up the colors on the doily.

I let this sit overnight to dry because I used a lot of gesso and I wanted it thoroughly dried.

Now...let's add some gorgeous Art Anthology Color to this...
I started with the greens. Misting Guacamole, Grass, and Fern Leaf randomly around the bottle, but really concentrating it around the opening I have left..

Next I grabbed Peacock Feathers and Lark. Misting all around the bottle.
I used Blue Topaz and Veridian on the neck of the bottle and in random areas on top of the misting to add depth and dimension.

There's no right or wrong way to do this. It's a matter of layering the colors to YOUR liking.

The sand color you see is Cinnamon Toast. With the Gesso down it went on pretty light. After that dried, I grabbed my Chocolate and painted the netting. This took roughly 3 coats.

I did the chocolate heavier in some spots to give some variation in color.
Once you are happy with the color on your bottle, grab your printable or whatever you want to use as a image decoration on your bottle. I rolled the gauze and doily back a bit and cut my image to fit, then used 3 in 1 glue to glue it down. I then rolled the gauze back over the edges of the image.

My next step was to prepare some of my embellishments. I pulled apart some of the moss pictured above so that it looked like coral.
I painted this in Tango.
I had also picked up a small package of buttons that had seashells and some star fish and sand dollars. I used wire cutters to snap off the button loops from the back and I painted the starfish Tango, and I painted the shells and sand dollars with gesso.
I wanted to prep all of my embellishments so once I started adding them I didn't have to stop and do it.

Using my hot glue gun, I started gluing on the embellishments. I started with the coral pieces, then added the shells and the glass rounds. I just kept layering them on until I was happy with the placement.

Again, there is no right or wrong way to do this...it is a matter of layering your embellishments to your liking.
Here are some photo's of how I laid mine out.

These leaf beads are super cool and they came in the large package of beads I picked up at Walmart. They really worked nicely as a frame around the image.

This next picture is the neck and top of the bottle. I used a wine bottle cork since the bottle was originally a twist off...
I got the blue open thread material on clearance at Walmart and also wrapped it with the green hemp cord. I sprayed that with some cinnamon toast before wrapping the neck of the bottle to tone down the brightness of the green.
The round beads around the rim are also from that package of beads and I brushed them with Chocolate after glueing them on to dull down the shine.

For the back of the bottle I found this cool Mermaid Water Spell and printed it out and glued it to the back. I inked it up a bit to make it look worn

Here are some completed images of the bottle

I know this was a long post and I sure hope you are inspired to go make a beautiful altered bottle.
Thanks so much for stopping by today and checking out my project.

Have a wonderful Day

x0x0x
Monica