You say "cheap," I say "innovative"

Yeah, that pretty well describes a lot of what I do/have done.

In today's case, I'm talking about reusing/upcycling things to use as vases instead of buying real ones.

I mentioned planning to do this a number of posts ago. Anyone remember?

I took some Simply juice bottles, like so:

Cut off the top where the lid screws on, sanded the edges....ok, I may have actually filed them with an emery board, but it worked and as we all know, I'm on a budget. Moving on, the rest is paper and Mod Podge.

This is one of the smaller bottles, about 1/2 as big.

This one's full-size and was my first attempt.

Also, after seeing a few ideas on Pinterest for coloring mason jars w/ Mod Podge and food coloring, I thought I'd try it out with something different.

Like a Sobe bottle.

Terrible shot, I know, but I'm assuming you know what a Sobe bottle looks like.

And the results...

In process of drying

This doesn't do the color justice.

It's certainly not a perfect process, or at least, I haven't perfected it. And as I said, the pictures really don't do it justice, which is a shame. It's such a beautiful, rich green, like a nice green glass. I'm very happy with it.

Stuff:

• The Sobe bottle was outside drying upside-down for at least 3 days, with me periodically rotating it to change which side had the most sun.
• As you can see in the first picture, it doesn't look like it's drying evenly. However, by the time I deemed  it finished, it had all evened out pretty well. Under closer scrutiny, there are a couple minor issues, I suppose, but I think it's great, especially for a first attempt and since it'll usually have flowers in it.
• I probably used a bit too much Mod Podge, actually. The coloring happens because the Mod Podge forms a layer over the inner surface, then it dries clear, but for the color, making it translucent. 
• I haven't tested this with water inside (hindsight is 20/20, right?). Oo So we'll see how that goes. I'll let you know.
• I also keep one Simply bottle around for mixing concentrated juices in. Saves having to use a giant pitcher that takes up too much fridge space. It's really a handy size; I know exactly where on the bottle to add water to mix it just to my liking and I can just screw on the cap and shake it up instead of having to dirty a mixing spoon.