Hello Samantha
There are some very beautiful wine bottles around and I agree, it seems a shame to just throw them away.
A nice idea is to make something homemade such as sauce, cordial, liquer, etc. Make sure you clean and sterilize the bottles properly. Fill it with one of your homemade products and put a pretty label of your own design on it and give it for a gift. They look nice with a hand painted design. Glass paint can be cured in the oven. If you don't wish to fill it with contents then just paint a nice little decoration on it and give it away as a specimen vase.
We have a lot of craft shops in our mountain and I have seen bottles painted with scenes, floral decoration and if you are not good at painting then use decoupage.
Best Wishes - Mountain Girl

Martha Stewart today showed a "Bottle Tree" made with different colored bottles. Perhaps you can check her site. Some bottles can be decorated with lace, beads and other trimmings and used to grow plants that will grow just in water or decorate them to use as candle holders. You can also wrap the top with copper wire and hang them in a window or wherever. Years ago we decorated bottles by dripping all different colors of wax on them and allowing it to run down the bottle or collect in globs here and there and were used as candle holders. You could arrange three different sizes and colors on a platter and cover the platter with stones, beads or whatever, place different colored items in the bottles, insert candles in the bottles and use as a centerpiece. HAVE FUN!!

Samantha,

I would suggest also looking in the Garden Junk forum. There are some posts which show hummingbird feeders made from old wine bottles. You just insert a special stopper in the bottle and hang it upside.

I've been making a small border of wine bottles stuck in the ground upside down. I'd seen a number of photos of them and wasn't sure if I cared for them. But we also drink a lot of wine - and some of the bottle colors are so great I hate to throw them away. Now that I almost have one section of my bottle border finished it is really starting to grow on me.

Pamela

Alot of neat ideas. My husband has made lamps out of the big wine bottles. We have 3 daughters and they each have a lamp from Dad. Neat and easy to make.

If homebrewing is legal where you live, you could recycle the bottles to hold homemade wine.
My mother uses old wine and liquor bottles to hold homemade rhubarb and berry wine, and several of my friends brew wine at home, using winemaking kits. They always need more bottles.

Pieces of broken bottles made of coloured glass can be tumble polished to make frosted glass, which can be used for all kinds of things, like flowerpot fillers, decorations for fishtanks, mosaics, jewelry, etc.

Gardengatemagazine.com shows how to make a pedestal for a birdbath out of wine bottles. Basically an outer circle of ten bottles upright. In the center of the circle, pound rebar (5) into the ground then invert 5 wine bottles upside down over the bars. Wrap copper wire around the bottles for support. Place a metal trashcan lid on top for the birdbath. Fill the holes in the handle with plumbers silicon.

You can wrap them with copper wire and add round marbles and just hang them for suncatchers or mobiles.

Rebecca's Garden showed pretty bottles with white vinegar and the blossoms from your garlic plants to make an herb vinegar for salads and cooking.
I like to use some of them as vases. With just one tall stem and a piece of raffia tied around the neck for a bow.

Carol

Our landlord took and made citronella lanterns with them. Put them in stakes with coils on the top and then added a wick and the oil...For holidays she decorates with greenery, etc:) They are very pretty and a lot more durable than the wooden ones you get at Lowe's/Walmart!

I have some lovely blue wine bottles. I'm waiting for someone who knows how to cut off the narrow tops so I can have great blue tumblers. have had them for years.

I read somewhere that if you turn the bottle upside down and fill the indentation with water, butterflies will come to your garden.I have never tried it, but I am getting a friend to save a wine bottle for me.I will let you know

Was at a craft fair and someone took bottles and somehow melted them down and made "cutting boards" out of them for presentation of cheeses, etc. Don't know how it was done. THey were completely flat and still looked like bottles. THey were great!

Hey Raptorrunner, you can get a bottle cutter at a stained glass shop, I think they are about $30.

Here's what I did with one of my large ones. http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/ohiodirtdigger/vwp?.dir=/&.src=ph&.dnm=Wine+bottle.jpg&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/bc/ohiodirtdigger/lst%3f%26.dir=/%26.src=ph%26.view=t

my anut drinks alot of wine and has used the bottles as edging along her side walk. the only thing is, you have to make sure that you put them between a bed and the sidewalk, not as edging for the lawn. the bottles always lose when the lawnmower comes out.

Just last night we had dinner with friends who asked us to save our empty green wine bottles. He is making a set of tumblers for his wife, using a bottle-cutter he got for Christmas. He said that after scoring the glass, the next step is to warm the bottle with a candle, then run an ice cube around the scoring to separate the 2 pieces. I did not ask, but I expect you'd have to sand down the sharp edges before using! Should not be hard to locate a source for bottle-cutters. Try good old google! CK

I'm not going to give away my age, but... Why back when Heckter was a pup, we made our bottle cutters. I don't know if I can explain without a diagram. Anyhow, You will need a board 10" in width. Any thing in the scrap box that is 16-18" long. You will need 4 pieces of wood to use as feet. They need to be long enought to allow a 3" C-clamp to fit under the edges. We used old left over thread spools. Just find a branch about 1 1/2" in diameter and cut 4 pieces 1 1/2" long, drill a hole in the center and use screws to attach them to one side of the board. Next place a 1" x 2" board along the long side of the board, put it on edge, mark the placement but don't attach. You will need a three cornered file, large in size. Don't buy new (they are expensive). Try looking in a junk shop. Ask a farmer, borrow one till you can find one of your own. Attach the file to the board going across the board. Make sure the file is outside the marks you made for the side board and about three inches from the working end of the board. We used nails that we pounded into the board on both sides of the file and then bent over to hold the file in place (needs attaching on both ends of the file). You could also use large fencing staples. Place scraps of cloth around the file where you are nailing it to the board so that it will hold tight. Now attach the side board. Nail the top 6" to the board. The reason being that bottles are different lengths than when the pup was young. The end board is adjustable. It is a 1" x 2" nailed to the edge of a 1" x 3" that is 10" long. This may be confusing but here is how it works. Figure the shortest bottle you will be cutting. Lay the bottle on the file where you are going to make the cut (bottom of the bottle toward the end of the board). Mark the side board at this point and cut off the unnailed portion. Nail the end to hold it . Can also glue before you put it together. This side board is to hold the bottle steady while you turn it. Place the adjustable end on the bottom of the bottle and clamp in place with the two c-clamps on each end. Rotate your bottle on the file to score it. Place a cotton string around the score mark, place a TINY bit of ligher fluid on the string and set it on fire, rotating the bottle to get it all hot. Then plunge the bottle in the bucket of cold water. It will split at the score. The glass then needs to be sanded smooth. We did this as kids, in the good old days when kids could do things. CAUTION: WEAR EYE PROTECTION AND THICK GLOVES AND LONG SLEEVES.

Oil candles- filled with preserved flowers,marbles.sea shells etc. You can buy a topper and wick at most craft stores.You have to use candle oil NOT lamp oil(Walmart has it)

Grateful....I'm wondering? ..what is the difference between lamp oil and candle oil?

I saw green and blue bottles just stuck upside down on assorted length dowel rods or copper pipe in a flower bed. They were a conversation piece of course.

I saw somewhere, a series of bottles cut at an angle (45 or 60°) about 8 inches from the top. The top pieces were stuck on a wall in a row, to use as hangers for light shopping bags etc

Use them like glass bricks for a wall. Mortar them together. Use rebar reinforcing if going higher than 2 feet.
Check out the website below. This lady KNEW what to do with bottles!! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village

i use my bottles to make my own condiments, peppers, olives, etc.. I've also used bubble baths, and bath salts in the smaller bottles i get.. it makes a nice decorative piece in the bathroom.....

to melt down bottles flat: I used to do this in college, called slumping bottles; took bottles, sometimes filled with diferent color broken glass; start in cold kiln sitting on football field marking lime; shape up into neck so will droop over for ashtry; start kiln, leave hour or so, cut off; remove when kiln cold.

would love to see a photo of border/edging made from wine bottles....may inspire me to start drinking wine again!!!!!

Hi Im looking for someone that knows how to drill a hole in the bottom side of a wine bottle so you can put lights in it and use for a decoration with some grapes comimg out of the top Thank, you

Nellie:

I believe you can get what's called a diamond bit or a glass bit for a drill. I did the same thing you're talking about.

{{gwi:2110565}}

Since I don't have a drill or know anyone that has the glass bit, I just stuffed the lights in the top and put the cork in. The cord can be covered up by ivy/grapes or whatever you'd like. Even if you drilled a hole in the bottom, you'd still see the cord going to the wall. So I wouldn't worry about it.

I have more pics of my bottles on the projects page on my website.

Here is a link that might be useful: My webpage

You can cut bottles with a wet tile saw(electric). You can drill bottles if you first apply a peice of tape, like masking or painter's. This will allow you to drill w/o cracking the glass.

Use a wine bottle with a recessed bottom, glass is thinner, knock a hole big enough to slip a plant in, Busy Lizzie is great, fill with earth and insert the plant gently. Tie a wire around the kneck and hang from a wall bracket. The flower will turn and grow up the outside of the bottle. Remember to water through the neck. Will be a conversation piece

There is a great new bottle cutter on the market that is easier and safer than all current designs. Check out the gallery on the website posted below for some great ideas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kinkajou website

I saw a how-to video on "cutting" glass without a cutter. It involved wrapping lighter fluid soaked cotton twine around the bottle, lighting it and letting it burn a bit, then plunging the bottle into ice water. The shock splits the bottle where it's been heated. Then sand the edges smooth. I'm sure that there are still instructions for this on the interwebs somewhere.

There are tons of ideas out there to transform the wine bottles into something special and worthy. However, please do make sure you clean them all and yeah sterilize them fully. Try to see winesisterhood website as they have lots of great ideas to transform that bottle into something wow.

Samantha,

I think empty wine bottle can be used the vase for flowers. You can put many kinds of flower in the flower. And send them as a gift. Other wise can be filled many cute things.