Glue Dots® + Weddings = Happily Ever After

I have to admit I was pretty excited when Glue Dots® challenged us to make something wedding themed for one of our projects this month. I love paper crafts, I love weddings, I love making gifts...does it get any better that that!?! What I came up with could really have 3 different uses. It can be part of a gift for the bride and groom, it can be a gift from the bride and groom to guests, or (with a little extra work) it can be a table decoration. Here's the wedding gift version:This is the front and back view of a personalized and decorated wine bottle. Added to a wine themed gift basket, it makes a beautiful gift. Set at the tables, it makes a lovely, personalized party favor. Making the labels is simple.
~First pick out a bottle of wine. Remove any price tags, stickers, etc. from it. Also remove the foil from around the neck and cork area of the bottle. Leave the labels on the wine bottle. It's much easier to cover them up than to remove them!
~ Next measure both the front and back labels, often they are different sizes. Add about 1/4" to the measurements to give yourself enough overlap. For example, if your label is 3" x 3 1/2", your new personalized label should measure about 3 1/4" x 3 3/4".
~Now you get to choose your paper. I chose paper from Imaginisce's To Love & Cherish line.
~Now design a front and back label. The front of my bottle has the couple's monogram on it, and the back has a wedding Bible verse. I designed both labels in my Silhouette software, and printed it out on my printer at home, but any word or print shop type software will do. Just use what you are most comfortable with. Print out your labels on patterned paper. *Just a note, the proper way to do wedding monograms is the bride's first initial on the left (when looking at the monogram), the groom's first initial on the right, and the last initial in the center.
~ Once printed, cut your labels to the proper size. Add Glue Dots® Glue Lines or Glue Dots® Memory Book Dots to the back of the printed label and layer over the label on the wine bottle.
~ Next use a punch or die cut machine (I used my Silhouette again) to cut about 8-10 flowers out of paper that matches the paper you used for your label. Add embellishments to the center of your flowers (I used I-rock Gems and Pearls). Curl the petals of your flowers forwards a bit to give the flowers more dimension. Attach a Glue Dots® Memory Book Dot to the back of the flower and attach to bottle.

If you're using this idea for a gift, you can stop here. If you're using this as a table decoration, you will want to continue with the additional steps to create this:
~ At this point, you'll want a cork-less, empty wine bottle instead of a full one. I've added 6 paper flowers to the wine bottle. There are lots of ways out there to make paper flowers, and you can choose your favorite, and the flower that best suits the theme of your wedding, but here are a few tips to make life easier.
~Make the paper part of your flower using a origami, die, or punch of your choosing (I again used my Silhouette).
~Grab some floral wire and some pliers to make a stem. Twist the wire around the pliers to make a flat spiral on one end.
~Thread the straight end down through the top of the flower.
~ You will now have a nice flat surface to work with in the center of your flower. Put a Glue Dot® Mini Dot on the underside of your wire spiral to keep the flower from moving around on the wire. You can add an embellishment (like a pretty rhinestone) to the top side of the wire to glam it up a bit.
~Finally, to keep your flower from moving around in the bottle, create a second wire spiral on the bottom of the wire. Add a large Glue Dot® (like a Craft Dot, Memory Dot, or Pop Dot) and place into the bottle. The Glue Dot® will stick to the bottom of the bottle keeping your flower in place.

I wrote this blog post while participating on the Glue Dots® design team.