Tell the Bees Altered Bottle and Hanger Card for Throwback Thursday

Hello, Friends!  I’m “buzzing” with excitement over this Altered Bottle and Hanger Card for today’s Throwback Thursday post!  It is a collaborative effort between our son Peter (Deep Roots Workshop) and Kathy by Design!  Peter turned this lovely apothecary bottle on his lathe, He was trying out some new carving tools and showed me the results.  The minute I laid eyes on this beauty, I saw a honey comb.  So I asked him if he would let me play around with it…and he trusted me!  Yay!

The Bee Bottle

Peter creates his art pieces from reclaimed wood.  This poplar wood bottle was once part of a 100 year old barn here in North Carolina.  There’s nothing like starting a project that has weathered years of history!  After turning the wood on his lathe, Peter carved the little circles with carving tools.  Then he treated the bottle with his homemade Danish oil.  This is a mystery concoction of  his that really brings out the grain of the wood.  Then he handed the bottle over to the Kathy by Design Day Spa for a little face lift .

First, smoosh Speckled Egg Distress Oxide Ink onto a non-stick craft mat.  Spritz it with water until small droplets form.  Then pick up the ink with your fingertip (or a sponge if you don’t like inky fingers) and tap it along the edges of the bottle.  Then lightly dip the sides of the bottle into the inky puddle.  Let the ink run, and spray with more water to fade it out.

Next “pollinate” the honey comb design with some mica gel medium.  I used Stamperia Glamour Gel.

Making the Tag

Next I pulled out my Craft Consortium “Tell the Bees” paper collection.  I purchased this ages ago along with the matching linen ribbon, stamps and a shaker mix.   Here’s how I made the decorative tag.

• First,  create the background. Swipe  a 4×4 panel of manila cardstock in a lovely puddle of Speckled Egg Distress Ink.  Create the puddle of ink by smooshing the ink pad onto a non stick craft mat and spritzing with water.
• Now dry the tag.  Then go in for another dip.  This time just tap the panel lightly in the ink to add layers of color.  Heat dry again.
• Then look for little beads of ink and lightly tap the card into them to pick them up.  This creates a gorgeous speckled effect on the background.  Heat dry.
• Now sponge on a little Wild Honey Distress Ink in a random fashion.  Spritz the card lightly to blend the colors.  Spatter water droplets for an even more distressed look.  Heat dry.
• Use bee themed stamps (mine came in the bundle I purchased way back when) and stamp the panel.  Archival Ink works best for this.  I used Coffee, Saffron and Black.
• Finally, die cut the panel into small tags.
• Tie a tag around the bottle neck with waxed linen thread.  Add embellishments.

Tell the Bees Hanger Card

Because I already had all the supplies out on my work table, I decided to go ahead and make another Hanger Card.   This one measures 5″ x 7″ and I love the way it turned out.  The burlap is stitched to a panel of cardstock.  Then I just layered up some scraps from Tell the Bees, stitched a pocket in place and embellished.

Several of you asked about these little metal hangers.  They were a closeout item on the Melissa Frances website.  There are a few left if you are wanting to add them to your stash.  This one has been painted with Speckled Egg Distress Paint.

Here’s a look at the  mixed media tag and a little note card I tucked into the pocket.

Creating this project reminded me that I actually do like to ink and stamp.  I think maybe I need to schedule a day every now and then to get inky!

Peter and I enjoyed this little project so much that we are already planning our next caper.  We want to shoot some video next time to show you the turning process and the altering process.  If you’d like to learn more about Peter’s artistry, you can check out his ETSY shop.   You can watch him salvage the wood used to make this apothecary bottle on his YouTube channel, He’s always posting something interesting on his Instagram account. And if you’d like to follow him on Facebook, you can keep up with his antics there.

I hope you enjoyed this slightly different take on Throwback Thursday.  It certainly was fun for me to share this crafty adventure with our son.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy

SUPPLY LIST

• Craft Consortium Tell the Bees
  • 12×12 paper pad
  • Clear Stamp Set
  • Printed Linen Ribbon (retired)
• Speckled Egg Distress Products
  • Oxide Ink Pad
  • Distress ink Pad
  • Paint
• Mixed Media Supplies
  • Wild Honey Distress Ink
  • Ranger Distress Sprayer
  • Black Archival Ink
  • Saffron Archival Ink (retired but you can use THIS color)
  • Coffee Archival ink 
• Charms and Embellishments
  • Little Birdie Flowers (the ones I used are sold out, but these are a good sub)
  • Champagne Chevron Ribbon
  • Burlap String
  • Patina Bee Charm (can’t find it…it’s been in my stash a long time)
  • Tibetan Bee Charm
• Melissa Frances 6″ hanger