Plastic Bottle Apple Containers

Since it's the start of a new school year, I wanted to share this fun and creative teacher gift with you! I first saw this idea over at Country Woman Magazine but also love the other versions I saw at Creative Jewish Mom and greenUPGRADER. 

These Plastic Bottle Apple Containers make a wonderful teacher gift but would also be a nice DIY gift for anyone this time of year. They are perfect for fall! And you can stuff them with a little keepsake or small gift, but I recommend these mini jars of apple butter! A very seasonal and delicious treat.

I need to give a huge THANK YOU to Heather from Fruitful Delights for helping me with this project. I e-mailed her a couple weeks ago with my vision and right away she was able to make me a batch of her amazing apple butter and even created custom jar labels for me! And since these will be going to my sons preschool teachers, each label has this message: "We're looking forward to a "sweet" year with you." This is also a great message and gift for those celebrating the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) this month.

The apple butter mini jars fit perfectly in the 1 liter bottle apple containers. I would recommend saving plastic 1 liter and 1.5 liter bottles. For really large apples you could use 2 liter bottles. 

First I cut the bottoms off the bottles and made sure they were clean and dry.

Then I spray painted the inside of the bottle bottoms with these colors:

Design Master Colortool Spray in Carnation Red

Design Master 790 Olive Bright Colortool Spray

Krylong Short Cuts Hobby/Craft Paint in Leaf Green

Make sure you tape the outside of the bottle bottoms with painters tape so you don't get spray paint on the outside surface. Spray the insides lightly. You will need to apply several coats to achieve an even coat that doesn't have drips or pools of wet paint (I learned this lesson the hard way). You only need to wait a couple minutes between paint coats.

When the paint is dry, remove the blue painters tape and fire up your hot glue gun! You will glue the zipper to the outside rim of the bottles. I found coordinating colored zippers at Jo-Ann Fabrics. They are Coats brand zippers in these colors: Red, Kerry Green, and Kiwi. You will want to buy the 18" or 22" long zippers (not the 7") and then trim the end off and seal it down with hot glue (I also learned this lesson the hard way). First hot glue one end of the zipper to one of the bottle bottoms and then unzip it almost all the way and glue the other side to the rim of the second bottle bottom.

I used cardboard to cut-out a stem and green card stock for a paper leaf. The stem is hot-glued on and the leaf is tied onto the stem with yarn. The leaf would be a good place to write a "to" and "from." 

Fruitful Delights has a wonderful selection of seasonal favorites. Heather and her family pick all the locally grown fruit themselves and have been making jam for years. It's apple picking season which means lots of Apple Butter, Apple Jam, and Apple Conserve! Stop by Fruitful Delights Facebook page and take a peek at all her delicious jams and latest flavors. She also does custom orders and special events! (I am not being paid to say this and she did not send me anything for free. I just really love her homemade jams and her attention to detail... and I think you will too!) Happy Fall!