DIY Network

Wine Bottle Soap Dispenser

Cathie Filian and Steve Piacenza, cohosts of Creative Juice, share great ways to go green on a DIY budget.

advertisement

Re-craft your way to a green kitchen by recycling a wine bottle into a handsome soap dispenser that looks great and is easy to create.

Going green on a DIY budget

By Cathie Filian and Steve Piacenza

April 9, 2007 — It seems like everything is going green, including environmentally friendly cleaning products for the kitchen. Boutique brands with fancy price tags are popping up all over retail shops, and I must chuckle because the best "green" cleaner I know is cheap — and it works wonders It's good old-fashioned vinegar.

Vinegar is a natural cleaner, disinfectant and deodorizer and compares to an all-purpose kitchen cleaner. You can clean kitchen surfaces with one part water and one part vinegar, and you can add fresh-squeezed lemon as an extra cleaning boost and for a citrus scent.

For extra greasy or stained areas, mix 1/2 cup of vinegar, 1/4 cup of baking soda and hot water together and use as a scrub.

For crystal clear windows, add vinegar and water to a spray bottle, and use recycled newspapers to dry the windows.

Re-craft your way to a green kitchen by recycling a wine bottle into a handsome soap dispenser that looks great on the countertop and is so easy to create that you will want to make them for all your friends. We made ours with the word "soap," but you could customize with a family name or a monogram, if you prefer.

Materials:

wine bottle
rubbing alcohol
liquor pour spout
pearl white and blue polymer clay
letter stamps
blue fine-tip permanent marker
Quick-Hold craft glue
drinking glass or other circle template
organic dish soap
oven

Steps:

1. Begin by thoroughly washing the wine bottle (after first soaking the bottle in water to remove the label). Use rubbing alcohol and a paper towel to remove any excess glue or gum.

2. Next, roll out a thin (1/8- to 1/4-inch) layer of pearl polymer clay.

3. Cut out a four-inch clay circle with the mouth of a glass as a template or circle template.

4. Stamp the clay to read S-O-A-P, using the letter stamps. Make sure you are working with clean rubber stamps.

5. Roll small balls of blue clay and flatten them out to make "bubbles." Apply bubbles to the pearl clay circle.

6. Press the clay label onto the wine bottle.

7. Place the bottle with the clay label in a cold oven and bake according to the clay instructions. Turn off the oven and let the clay cool.

8. Finish by gluing the label in place with craft glue and let the glue set for 15 minutes.

9. Trace S-O-A-P with a fine-tip blue permanent marker.

10. Fill the bottle with dish soap, and place the pour spout in the opening of the bottle.

(Cathie Filian and Steve Piacenza cohost Creative Juice. For more information log on to www.cathiefilian.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)

Get DIY On Your TV. Just follow the instructions to see if DIY Network is available through your cable or satellite provider.