As I get older, my appreciation for wine has just increased

  At our house, we are very partial to red wine, and because of this we have a lot of bottles that we've collected over the years. I always like to hold onto them for various projects and ideas, and today I put some more of them to use. We've been in need of a more updated centerpiece for our dining table, so I decided to create one using a few of our favorite bottles.

For this project, you need:

Wine bottles

Candlesticks (the more colorful the better; we made ours at the pumpkin patch last year and hadn't used them for anything yet)

Long reach lighter (you're going to want the extra distance)

Wooden skewer

Paring knife

Paper towel

Medium-sized basket

Cardboard

Tissue paper

  First thing you'll want to do is make sure that your wine bottles are completely cleaned out. You're going to have fire near them, so you don't want to get that near any alcohol.  Then lay all of your tools out on a paper towel.  This will prevent any wax from dripping onto whatever surface you're using.

  Next, take the candlesticks and the paring knife. Carve into the bottom of the candle, just enough so that it fits snugly into the wine bottle. I went up the stick a couple inches to ensure that it had a sturdy base in the bottle.

  There will be a lot of extra shavings leftover from trimming the candle down.  These could be saved to create your own candles at home!

  Once the candlestick is able to fit in the bottle, take your lighter and melt the candle around its base so that it adheres to the neck of the bottle. This will prevent it from tipping or falling out.

  Now that the candle is secured, you can light it to get it melting. You'll want to let it melt until it gets a flatter top to it. This will create a little pool of wax around the wick.

  When you start to see a flat top to the candle and the wax pooling in the middle, it's time to start creating your melted candle effect.  To get the look of the wax dripping down the side, take your wooden skewer and press down on the edge of the wax pool.  This will create a channel for your wax to drip down.

 

  After a few more seconds, the wax will pool up again.  Keep repeating this process to add more wax drippings to the side of the bottle.  Notice any areas that are more bare than others around the bottle, and make sure that you create channels to cover those areas.  As the candle melts, old channels will flatten out so that you can create new ones.

  If you ever feel like there is too much wax rushing out of one channel, use the skewer to press the surrounding wax into the channel to close it up.  And if the wax drippings start to build up, you can use your lighter to melt it down and smooth it out a little bit.

Before

After

 Continue creating channels as the candle melts until you have your desired amount of wax dripping around the bottle.  This may take a while to accomplish, so I recommend having something to do for the short times in between the wax pooling back up.  Then blow out the candle and let it sit to cool and harden.  Your end product will look something like this:

  While you are waiting for the candles to cool, you can begin preparing your basket.  For this, I used a basket that was given to us by Nick's mom.  It just so happens to be a wine basket, so it even came with nice cardboard slats to set the bottles in.  You can even cut down some thin cardboard to create your own dividers if you want.  Once you have the bottles and cardboard in case, pack them in with some colorful tissue paper.

  And there you have it!  A very versatile centerpiece that can easily be altered or switched out for other colors/candles to match the seasons.

So now that I have those extra candle shavings, I think a recycled candle is going to be an addition to my project list.  Delightful Country Cookin' has awesome instructions on how to make a nice square candle with an old milk carton.