Do Your Own: Bottle Stoppers

For Christmas Jeremy got me a deer bottle stopper, and the year before Bayley bought me a mustache one.  As it happens, I happen to have a the plethora of empty, clear bottles I've taken to compulsively saving just because. At any rate, a few weeks back I had the bright idea to put the bottles and stoppers together on my kitchen window sill. 

I like how they decorate the kitchen without taking up visual space or detracting from the view-- so I resolved to get some more cute stoppers and have a full sill of bottles and stoppers.  Then I started looking for stoppers.  Turns out all the interesting ones are very expensive  so...

...I thought I'd try to make my own!  The squirrel was my first attempt, and I was very pleased with the outcome, so I went ahead and got together the supplies for a more complicated version.  

You'll need:

• Simple bottle stoppers like these
• Black paint
• Various metallic paints (I used a couple of different silvers and mixed my own to get the shade I wanted)
• Popsicle sticks
• Wooden beads
• Toy animals (like these) and other shapes (I used a wooden snowflake I had saved from Xmas-- anything will work as long as it is the right size and has a texture)
• Glue stick-- be sure to use glue designed for metals, plastics and/or rubber

Start by gluing the animals to the Popsicle sticks.  Get at least two feet solidly glued on (my moose had a wide stance lol).  

Cut the sticks.  I used a hacksaw, but strong sheers would probably work.  Sand out the edges of the stick, and round the corners.

Glue a bead on the bottom middle of the stick.  Because of the shape of the snowflake, I skipped the popsicle stick and stuck on a bead.

Get your paints ready!

Paint everything solid black.  Be sure to do a couple coats, and let it dry thoroughly.  Acrylic craft paints only took a few minutes to dry!

Once they are completely dry, you are going to dry brush on the metallic color.  Load up the brush with the paint, then wipe some off on a piece of paper until the brush is nearly dry.  Then brush the paint on keeping the brush as near horizontal as possible.  The idea is to get the metallic paint on the raised part of the object, but not in the grooves.

Once the shapes are metallic to your liking, let them dry a good 20 minutes.

Now glue the bead to the top of the stopper!  

They are surprisingly solid-- though I definitely need to pull up/push down on the rubber part of the stopper and not the decorative part.  And they look great on the sill!