My First DIY

We all remember out firsts in life. Our first bike, our first kiss, our first, pet... And of course our first DIY. My first DIY was a project for my stepmother's birthday. It is a lamp that I made out of an old wine bottle. The great thing about giving DIY projects as gifts is that they can be very personal. My stepmom likes to be sentimental, herself, so every time she opens a bottle of wine, she writes on the cork what the occasion was when she drank it.
    For her birthday, I turned the bottle of wine she drank with my dad on their anniversary into a cute, fully functional lamp. My supplies included a wine bottle, some opaque colored glass pebbles (the kind you find in fish bowls), a hot glue gun along wih plenty of glue sticks, and a strand of lights. The process was quite easy, though painstakingly tidious.
   All there was to do was to put a dot of glue on a pebble and arrange the pebble onto the bottle. You would do this until the bottle is completely covered with the pebbles. One fun aspect of this project is you can pick your own color scheme of how you want your piece to look based on what color pebbles you pick. You can also create patterns and designs. I picked a sea themed color scheme and opted for a randomized look of the colored pebbles. This sort of gave it a disco ball look when the lamp was on in the dark. To get to the point of lighting up your lamp, you need lights in it. An old strand of Christmas lights worked well for me. A hole must be drilled into the bottle so the cord can come out to be plugged in after you place the strand of lights inside. The last step is to plug the lamp in and turn the lights off while you stare at your beautiful and thrifty creation.