How to make a decoupage bud vase with recycled book pages

Do you have any old bottles and old books?

Turn them into a beautiful bud vase!

I am on a quest to use up an old dictionary.  This quest may take me quite a few years, as each project I do, doesn’t take enough book pages!  This one only used one and a half pages.  At that rate I will be making recycled book page projects for many more years!

I found a great used bottle for this project, from an iced coffee drink…perfect size for a bud vase.

I began by tearing up pieces of the book page.  I used small pieces so they would easily lay flat on the bud vase.  Each piece was about 1″ x 1″ or smaller.

On the edges of each piece I used a paintbrush to put colored decorating chalk on.  I had to kind of dab the chalk on rather than brushing it on.  I did this so more chalk would adhere and so I wouldn’t get a straight chalk line.  I used a medium green color and noticed that the colored chalk stuck better to the areas on the paper that were more of a messy tear, rather than a straight tear.  This gave each of my pieces a lot of variation of greens all on one piece.

I then began to decoupage the pieces of paper onto the glass bottle using a decoupage glue.  First applying the glue, then adding a piece of paper and then adding glue on top.  And overlapping the pieces as I worked my way around the bottle.  The chalk did smear a little, but not enough to tint the whole piece of paper, it actually turned out beautiful – giving the bottle an overall softer look.

Overall the basic construction of this bottle took me about 1/2 hour.  Not too long at all and within 10 minutes of finishing it was pretty much dry.

And once I was done – it was time to jazz it up a bit!

I tried a variety of ways of dressing the bottle up more…not sure which is my favorite!

As you can see, I really couldn’t decide the best way…I really do like all of the many choices that I put together!  That is how versatile this one little bud vase turned out to be.  I think this would make a great hostess gift or gift for you to make for your friends at work.

Visit the tutorial for the mini tissue paper flower pictured above.  Mini Tissue Paper Flower

I hope you enjoy recycling your old books and bottles into something to decorate your home with or to make as a gift!