They'd make nice vases with that shape. I remember seeing someone who used watered down paints inside glass containers making a wonderful swirled design, maybe someone else can find the link (may not have even been at Garden Web), I didn't have any luck.

I saw some drink bottles at a farmer's market a few years ago that had a small hole drilled near the bottom so the bottle could be used as an incense burner. The inside had marblized paint. I'm not into that sort of thing, but it was selling fairly well at the time.

Those are a cute shape. I could see them spray painted and then turned into a Santa or Snowman just by putting a felt hat on them and painting on a face. I think there's a book called "Watt's up" that shows all kinds of patterns for painting lightbulbs--bet those would all work for these bottles too. Or you could just make a bottle tree for your garden area--would be pretty with the sunlight shining on them. Luvs

I like the idea of a bottle tree who says they have to be blue or green

I would recycle them.

That's what I'm trying to do!

hallo Alison
Perhaps you could paint them with glass-paint, and put them up-side down on sticks (not sure if this is the right word),
you use for supporting plants in your garden. It looks colorfull and you don't hurt your eyes when gardening

I agree with luvstocraft, they would be cute snowmen/santas
angels
Go to xmas fairs and get ideas
go to a senior center my grandmother and her friends were always making things out of unusual items
maybe they would like some to do something with, or a brownie troop

good luck and when you decide let us know

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/decorations/lightbulb.shtml

this is for lightbulb ornaments but I thought the shape was the same

I haven't responded to this cuz I couldn't come up w/any sensible suggestion but after JELTSJE's suggestion I had an idea. How about painting the insides w/that water and oil-based paint technique I'm sure you've seen on the craft shows, and put them on rebar stakes and border a flowerbed??? In case you haven't seen or read of the technique, you put water in the bottle, pour in oil-based paint and swirl it around until it coats the bottle. You can use more than one color in each bottle. I can see this in my mind as a delightfuly colorful border for a flowerbed.

okay, I would put in the recycle bin too! lol
I think they would make nice little candle holders...

or, and I think this would be VERY tough and VERY heavy... BUT, and IF they have a lip around the top.. I think you could make a very cool hanging doodad! lol

wrap a strong wire around the top where a lip might be and wire a few together and then a few more, then add them all until you get a BIG round globe of bottles! It would look cool if you could put lights in it too! kind of like those big ole Christmas light globes made with those plastic cups... remember those?

Drill holes for the tops in a piece of 2x6, about 8-10 apart, put the 20 lite stands in each bottle, place them upside down, and use them on your porch, patio, or garden.
Would make NICE lights....

They'd be cute painted up as penguins. Add a little hat and scarf. They'd be cute as could be as place card holders for a holiday dinner and something if you wanted to you could send home with your guess.

I saw a picture once where a woman took a set of neat bottles and several strings of connected tiny Christmas lights. She slipped about 5 lights or so in each bottle, left a stretch of lights between the bottles and stuck the necks of the bottles in the ground along a garden path near an outdoor plug. When she plugged them in at night the bottles looked like small lamps lit up. I can't remember if she buried the connecting strings of lights or let them run on the surface of the ground - she may have buried them because all I saw were lights inside the bottles. It looked pretty cool.

I have 7 small green bottles that I plan to make a board with 7 circles in a row the size for the bottom of the bottles to sit into and use it on my dining room table for single blossoms. I plan to leave spaces between each hole so that the board will take up about 3/4 length of table.
They could also be used for candles. (Making the holes for them to sit in will hopefully keep my 3 cats from knocking them over!)

I love all the ideas so far. I have a few ideas too. I would use them decorated and filled with spice mixes like cinnamon and cloves for applesauce and savory spices for soups and give them as gifts to people who cook, or fill with scented stuff for folks who like that stuff.(Makes me sneeze)Candy like M&M's or jellybeans. Decorated and filled with marbles shells or buttons they would look cool on a shelve or something. Treasure hunt jars are fun too. Fill with small green and yellow dried peas and a dozen or so tiny treasures to hunt for, things like marbels and things from gumball machines. Put a list of what to hunt for on the bottum of the jar.

I would send them to TOOMUCHGLASS. They are just begging to be mosaiced ! LOL

Alison, I'm curios(spelling oké?) what you decided to do with them? Please let us know.

FIL THEM WITH "homemade" HOT PEPPER SAUCE!!!!!!!

OOOOOOOoooHHHHHHHHHHHH GOOD!

Look on Garden Junk side to see DECOMPOST's entry on December POTM. It's fabulous, and when I saw it, I thought it would be a great project for the bottles.

A tassel???? The bottle would be the top of course, and yarn, ribbon, string, etc, would be the tassel part. This takes a bit of visualization. ;o)

patty_cakes

Hi, i have an Orangina bottle that i use as a dispenser for dish soap. Just get one of those liquor bottle pourer (sold at Bed Bath and Beyond, Linens and Things, or a local liquor store). It's the perfect size...Hope this helps

It would be a great art project, painting each one differently and then putting on a tree outside = bottle tree.

Just wondering if you ever decided what to do
with all of those Orangina bottles.

If you cleaned them up, you could make oils and
vinegars, maybe bath salts, etc. then put a pretty
ribbon on them and give as gifts. Maybe you could work
on them throughout the year. Come December, you will
have a number of nifty gifts in shapely bottles.

:-) KM

Well I read most replies, but it's getting late and I should be in bed so I'll just hope I'm not repeating anyone.

I saw this on a Martha show last summer. She cut off the bottom of bottles. You have to sand them or something so they won't cut you ofcourse. Using a hanging light kit she pulled the cord through the mouthpiece of the bottle and made them into a light fixture. I'm sure they could be hardwired if you wanted to.

Or instead of making an electrical light you could make them into floarting candle holders by cutting off the bottom, epoxy it to the mouth piece as a base, turn over and fill with water add your floating candles.

~Justie~

I'm so sorry I haven't responded earlier -- I love all the suggestions!

I don't have pictures, but I have done several things with them.

There are a few in the bathroom with bath salts. Unfortunately, even with a nice cork in them, they seem prone to getting moisture inside the bottle.

I used black paint for one set and white for another, and made two sets of a penguin and a snowman as Christmas accessories for friends.

I used a long piece of soft copper wire and, leaving a foot-long "tail", I coiled some wire tightly aound the screw-top threads. 6-8" farther down the wire I wrapped the neck of another bottle. 6-8" farther, another bottle, and so on, for six bottles. I made a loop at the end of the tail, and hung the whole chain from a nail at the top of the bedroom window. I filled the bottles with water and cuttings from plants I'm over wintering. It's a bit of a pain to top up the water, but it look nice, and is promising; I think I could wire 2-3 bottles in a bunch, then have another bunch 6-8" down. More cuttings that way! (Altho' I think cleaning the inside of the bottles could get a little tricky in between batches of cuttings!)

I haven't finished the third option yet, but it's very much like what junebugz suggested. I've got a 4' x 8" x 2" pine board -- more like a timber, really! I plan to rout 4-5 holes evenly spaced across the length of it, the width of the bottles, and about 1/4" deep. I sand the heack out ofd it, stain it, and -- voila! -- a bank of bud vases (for fake flowers) on my dining room console! (Of course, I still have to clear all the miscellaneous CDs, extra seed packets, unopened mail, sleeping cat and all the other carp off the console first....)

Thanks for all the ideas; my niece is probably stocking up more for me!

If you have a boat load, WOW!!. I saw a show where they marblized the inside and used them upside down to edge a flower garden. I think it would be great to come up with all kinds of ideas for the inside.Like a memory wall with pictures, anything that brings a smile to your face. just seal the tops so moisture does not get in

Tie a pretty ribbon around the neck, add a few fresh flowers and put one at each place setting at your next dinner party. The guests can take them home as a hostess gift.

Debbie in Florida

Here's instructions to make a liquid rainbow -- usually done as a science experiment showing different densities of fluids. I've done this is an odd shaped bottle and then corked it with a cork dipped in wax.

Here is a link that might be useful: layered liquids

We are actually working on turning these bottles into party favors and don't have enough - would you be willing to send them to Hawaii for a $$ price and/or trade? How many do you have?