The Super Secret Birthday Project Revealed

I have briefly mentioned before the super secret birthday project that I've been working on for a gift for my brother David's birthday. 

 

And I figured that since I've given him his present that I can now share with all of you what Amazing Boyfriend and I made for my brother. 
 

...TADAA!!!

 We made him a whiskey bottle lamp.

Honestly, I think that my favorite part of this project was that ABF got really into it, helped me figure out the best way to put it all together, and helped me with some of the more difficult parts. It's been a project on my to-do list, and I'm excited that I had the perfect person to make it for.

Wanna see how we did it? 

Supplies: 
large liquor bottle
make-a-lamp kit
lampshade
fabric to cover lampshade
modge podge
filler (decorative sand) 
3/8" diamond tip drill bit
cordless drill 
hot glue gun


I started this project by cleaning the bottle. I washed the inside out with dish soap and rinsed it a few times. I cleaned the outside of the bottle with rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball. Then I used hard coat Modge Podge to seal the labels to the bottle. (I didn't take pictures, but hopefully you know what I'm talking about.)

While I was taking stuff over to my cousin's house for a garage sale, Amazing Boyfriend drilled a hole through the cap and secured the lamp bulb base through it using washers, gromets and other parts that we picked up from the hardware store. He even took pictures of the process all by himself! (Yes, I am very proud.)

 Drilling hole through the top of the cap. 

Finished drilling hole through the top of the cap. 
 

All the components: lamp base and switch, bottle cap, washer and nuts. 

 The base of the lamp screwed together with the cap. 

Making sure that it all lines up right. 

The next step was drilling the hole in our bottle to put the cord through. Now this was the most challenging part of this project and was something that Amazing Boyfriend and I thoroughly researched before we started. After much debate (and yes, there was plenty of debate) we decided to try using a 3/8" diamond tip drill bit that I got from Home Depot. I was in charge of holding the whiskey bottle and spraying it with water, while ABF did the drilling. 

*note: when drilling a hole in any glass surface the key is using the proper drill bit, specifically for glass or tile, lots of patience and lubricant. In our case we used water, but there are other oil lubricants available for use. If you're not careful, you will crack the glass and have to start over with a new bottle.*
  

After the hole is drilled, ABF fitted a rubber grommet inside the hole and thread the wire of the lamp kit through the bottle and out of the neck hole. The grommet is to secure the wire running through the bottle, protect the wire from the edges of the hole we drilled as well as making the hole tight so that the filling material doesn't come out. 


Once the wire is threaded through the bottle, I filled it with the decorative sand I bought. I chose a metallic copper decor sand because it reminded me of whiskey, but you can fill it with anything, small rocks, glass pebbles, etc. They have lots of options in the floral section of any craft store. 

 

Once the bottle is filled it's time to put the light together! 

Now for the lampshade, I stole took some purple velvet Crown Royal bags from my Dad's stash (he's saving them to have a quilt made out of them) to use on the lampshade. I found a lampshade on clearance at Jo-Ann's that already had the adhesive on the lampshade, I just had to add the fabric. I used my hot glue gun and the cording from the Crown Royal bags to add the detail to the lampshade.  If you were making your own lamp there are many different lampshade options out there, just get creative. 

    Once the lampshade was finished, I put it on the finished lamp and we were done. I have to admit the finished project was a lot cooler then I thought it would turn out and this is probably one of my favorite project ever. I also have a feeling that once everyone sees this I'm going to have a bunch of my guy friends begging me to make one for them (and their wives/girlfriends begging me not to.)

As for my brother, who rolled his eyes when I told him I was making his birthday present, he LOVED it!!! He said that it's the coolest thing that he's ever owned and he never even guessed what we were going to make for him. 

P.S. Happy Birthday, David!!!


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