Protea Wine’s Art Blossoms & DIY Wine Bottle Hummingbird Feeder

Hey guys! I recently was very honored to be asked to participate in Protea Wine’s Art Blossoms Campaign. This fantastic wine company send me two of their beautiful wine bottles to upcycle into something fun. The campaign asked six bloggers and pinners to create something special with their wine bottles. Then six lucky Protea Wine Pinterest followers will be chosen to receive one of these special gifts. It’s a fabulous way to spread art and beauty around the country and hopefully inspire others. I was super excited to be involved in this campaign not only because I love the idea behind it, or because I do love to upcycle, but also because their bottles are so fantastic! Years ago I made hummingbird feeders from wine and liquor bottles for our moms for Mother’s Day. It is a super easy DIY and makes a wonderful gift. The trick comes in finding the most beautiful bottles. So, I knew that the Protea bottle would be perfect!

Here’s a little video about the campaign:

Protea Art Blossoms from Alex Onion on Vimeo.

And now the how to:
Here’s What You Need:

*Wine Bottle

*Copper Wire 4ft (I bought mine at Home Depot, it is #4 or 5)

*Water Spicket Knob

*Button or Cabochon

*Hummingbird Feeder Tip for a glass bottle (I found mine at my local bird supply store)

*E6000

*Heavy Duty Pliers

*Workbench Clamp or Vise

*An extra set of hands comes in handy too

Instructions:

The first thing you need to do is wash your bottle thoroughly and remove the paper label. If you still have gummy stuff on your bottle a little acetone will get it off. Once your bottle is nice and clean you are ready to wrap it. You need to make a loop to start. Straignten out your wire, then take the end of the wire and bend it back a little at around 2″ down, then bring the tip around and squeeze the sides together till the loop closes.

Now, bend your lop at a right angle. Sit it on top of the bottle and center the loop in the middle of the bottle. Make a mark on the wire where it meets the edge of the bottle. Bend the wire at a right angle where you marked.

Next, put the loop of your wire into your vise. Now, this is where it is handy to have a helper hold the bottle for you. Hold the bottle on top of the wire loop centered, then pull and wrap the wire around the bottle. Wrap it a few times around the large part of the bottle, then tightly wrap it a few times around the neck.

Vary carefully squeeze the end of the wire down onto the neck of the bottle.

Now you are ready to add your “flower.” Place a generous amount of E6000 onto the back of your spicket knob. Glue down to the front of your bottle just above the lip. You may want to put something under each side to keep it from shifting until the glue dries. Glue the button or cabachon to the center of the knob.

Now insert your feeder tip into your bottle and you are ready to fill and hang.

I love how this feeder turned out! The bottle is just beautiful and it is going to look fabulous hanging in someone’s yard! You can enter to win one of these fabulous projects by following Protea Wines on Pinterest Here. You can also see what other fabulous projects are being done by other bloggers in the campaign by checking out the Protea Wines Art Blossoms Board Here. Lots of really cool stuff! I hope you all have enjoyed my little tutorial! I’ll be back soon with another fun project. Until then…

Happy Crafting!