The first thing I did was gather literally anything and everything around my house that I could feasibly put into these bottles. I raided the pantry for lentils, beans, noodles, quinoa, couscous, rice, and grits. I went through my office and gathered paper clips, rubber bands, staples, and thumb tacks. In my sewing kit I had snaps, yarn, pins, buttons and more. My craft bin held pipe cleaners, ribbon, glitter, jewelry wire, and lots of beads. The rest of my kitchen provided tooth picks, tin foil, food coloring, oil, wooden skewers, plastic wrap and more. Anything that is non-perishable that can fit through the mouth of a bottle can be considered.
I used bottles from drinks I consumed myself as well as having a friend save a few for me. Tear the labels off and wash them out thoroughly and make sure they are bone dry before you start this project. If you place dried goods such as rice or couscous inside a bottle that is even slightly damp you will end up with mildew and mold. If you are leaving the bottles to air dry, this can take several days-I was impatient and decided to use my blow dryer on a low setting.
As I was looking over my supplies, I began to piece together some ideas for the theme of each bottle. The first one I made was the "beach" bottle. I used couscous for the "sand" and added a few faux pearl beads, a couple cowry shells that I use as hair embellishments, and a few pasta shells. Obviously, you could use real sand or rice for this as well. Feel free to throw in anything else that seems beach-related such as nautical buttons and such. Here's how mine looked inside:
I also knew that I wanted to make a bottle that mimicked the sound of a rain stick and would be soothing to look at. For this I crammed as many wooden skewers and rice noodles into the bottle as I could fit, and then added about a half of a cup of multi-colored couscous. Because the skewers were taller than the bottle, I cut the tips off and put them in around the edges.You could also use quinoa, sand or rice. The sound this makes as you turn it around and around is very relaxing:
The next bottle I wanted to put together was a liquid one. I dropped a random assortment of about 15 beads into the bottle and then added about a half of a cup of mineral oil, before adding some glitter and then finally filling it with water. I've read that adding glycerin to the bottle will keep the beads from clumping with the oil but, glycerin isn't something I keep around the house and, in my opinion the clumping effect made this bottle look kind of like a lava lamp, which I think is cool:
For my next bottle I wanted to make something that would serve as an obstacle course of sorts for beads, rice and couscous to work it's way through. I started off with a dollar store beaded necklace in the bottom and then added rubber bands and toothpicks. I would do a layer of jumbled rubber bands and then add several toothpicks, making a point of throwing them inside in every direction so they would become as entangled with each other and the rubber bands as possible. I alternated between rubber bands and toothpicks throughout the whole bottle and I would also randomly stick in pipe cleaners or jewelry wire here and there. (I curled the pipe cleaner around a pencil first to make them into little corkscrews.) The last thing I did was to add about a tablespoon each of couscous and pearl rice and about ten very small beads; It's really fun to watch them make their way through the bottle from one end to the other as you turn it:
At this point, I didn't have any other specific ideas in-mind for my remaining bottles, so I let my daughter play with the ones I already made, while I fiddled around with the empty bottles I had left, and handed them to her as I went along.
The last few bottles were pretty simple. For my final large bottle I decided to cram it full of a random assortment of a bit of every single thing that I had. So, literally everything that I listed in the beginning ended up in this bottle in some quantity or another. Sia spends lots of time looking through this one now. No matter how long you turn it in your hands, you're always bound to see something new between the grains, dried goods, unusual beads, sewing pins, yarn, tin foil, rubber bands and more:
For the final small bottles I had, I kept one very simple by just putting a bunch of beads of the same color, but varying sizes and textures inside, for a monochromatic look. When my daughter shakes this one, she loves the sound it makes. For another one I simply put a few curled pipe cleaners inside along with some ribbon, glitter and couscous. One contains just sports beads and some small noodles and beans. Lastly, I filled a bottle with water and glitter and just a few super-sparkly hair beads.
The final steps for me were to get the last sticky part of the label off of the bottles and of course, to seal the tops. I used a flat razor blade and very carefully scraped the label residue off of each bottle. I've heard of people using "Goo Gone" as well and I tried this but it didn't work well for me. To seal the tops I used clear super glue from Gorilla Glue but I'm pretty sure that any super glue or nail glue would work. Follow the directions on the bottle for drying time. Before handing them back to Sia I gave them all another wash on the outside with soap and water and dried them.
We keep them in a plastic tote basket that I got from a dollar store, so that we can easily carry them around the house, or take them with us on a road trip. Sia just loves them:
TIPS AND TRICKS:
*Keep safety in-mind. Obviously, my bottles are filled with some items that, were they ever to come out of the bottle, could harm a baby. Make sure your little one is supervised when playing with these, or, you can opt to only fill your bottles with items that are baby safe such as cotton balls, yarn, water, ect. Having said that, I tried my hardest to get the cap off of each of these after the glue had dried, and I had no luck. These bottles are also really strong and I am personally not worried about my daughter playing with these.
*Everyone has items around the house that can be used for this project. If it's small, and not perishable, add it to the list! Whether it be old barrettes, sequins, craft items, grains, noodles, beans, seeds, jewelry chains, rubber bands, old earrings, coins, string, yarn, tissue paper, tin foil, cotton balls, hair bands, soda can tabs, Ect.
*Get older siblings involved; Older kids will have a blast helping you put these together, and it encourages bonding when they can help make something for a younger sibling. They can also make some for themselves! The bottles I made here are tailored for a baby up to two years old or so. But older kids will also enjoy more sophisticated bottles such as ones with hidden letters of the alphabet inside courtesy of alphabet noodles or beads.
*Google the phrase "DIY discovery bottles" and there are no limits to the amount of ideas you will find on so many variations of this project for every age and developmental level.
*Consider making a set of these as a companion baby shower or birthday gift. Make it look a little more refined by being sure to use all of the same kind of bottle with the same color caps. Put the set in a small basket and glue on a label with the child's name and the phrase "Adventures in a Bottle." You could even buy a stamp of the first letter of the child's name so that you can put their initial on the cap of each bottle.
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