Liquor Bottle Painting for Fall Pumpkin Decor

After our junkin’ journey trip to Louisville, we came home with several interesting bottles of bourbon. And normally, that wouldn’t be a big deal…but as you may recall, we can no longer recycle glass in our county. So, I’m once again tasked with coming up with ways to recycle glass into projects. And this time, I decided to do some liquor bottle painting and transform them into Fall pumpkin decor.

I promise you it’s not a crazy upcycling idea! Because, as fate would happen to be, several of the empty glass bottles had shapes that reminded me of pumpkins and gourds.

I began to formulate some bottle painting designs in my mind. I wanted the painted gourds to look somewhat realistic with striations of multiple fall colors.

And yes, this is not the first time that I’ve painted bottles with autumn in mind! Remember these amber glass bottles that I made?

But, anyway- I digress! I gathered up a few crafting supplies and put my gourd-bottle idea to the test!

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Glass Bottle Painting Ideas for Fall

Even though I’m a spray-paint-kind-of-gal, I needed to brush paint these liquor bottles to get the color design right.

But I know how aggravating it can be to work paint glass with acrylic paints. So, I took an important first step- and sprayed them with white primer first (after removing the labels, of course).

Next, I let the spray primer dry while I gathered some craft paints. I assembled a collection of different orange paints (and a light green one that isn’t shown), as well as some cheap crafting paint brushes, too.

Also, I grabbed a paper plate for painting – you’ll see why in a moment.

I had this idea that I could slightly swirl two or three colors in order to get striations of color, like on real gourds. 

Note that I said swirl, not mix, the various paint colors. It’s an important distinction to make here!

First, I squeezed out dollops of paint in various colors so that the edges touched. Then, I used toothpicks to pull the paint into each other, like a spiderweb effect. Finally, I carefully dipped my paint brush into the swirl and brushed it on the glass bottles in long, even strokes.

And you know what? It worked like a charm.

Next, I repeated the same process using different combinations of paint colors. My idea for liquor bottle painting was working out better than I had even hoped!

DIY Pumpkins with Liquor Bottle Painting

Even though I planned on wrapping the bottle necks with jute twine, I went ahead and preemptively painted them a dark green/brown.

JUST IN CASE the jute didn’t cover it completely…

To finish up my fall pumpkin decor, I wound the jute twine around the dark green neck using my hot glue gun to hold the twine in place.

Next, I scavenged some leaves from a floral stem that had “veiny” leaves, like those found on pumpkin and gourd vines.  I hot glued them in place and continued to wrap the necks with twine.

When all was said and done, the first of my glass pumpkins was done! And I absolutely LOVED how it turned out.

Now I just needed to finish my other bottles!

Liquor Bottle Painting for Fall Pumpkin Decor

And just like that, my trio of painted gourds was ready. Don’t they look terrific?

It really pays to hand paint them to get those subtle, but important, striations of color. Just like real pumpkins and gourds!

I think we may go shopping for a few more stout-shaped glass bottles so I can make more using green and yellow paints. That way, they’d look even more gourd-like.

Either way, I’ll definitely be incorporating these into my autumn decorations from here on out. Thanksgiving table decor, too!

I just can’t help myself at this time of year- I turn EVERYTHING into some kind of DIY pumpkin. I even made a few pumpkin projects in my book, “Crafting with Flannel”.

And if you enjoyed this upcycling idea for pumpkin decor, then you’ll love how I made these “stained glass” pumpkins from thrift store pieces!

Craft on!

S

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