Air Brushed Water Bottle

Well, today’s project comes from my youngest son.  I recently purchased him an air eraser from Harbor Freight because airbrushing seemed a lot less dangerous than a table saw.  Surely, this was something he could get behind and enjoy, right?  What’s not to like about blasting the surface off something.  So we went to the Dollar Tree and purchased a couple of Aluminum Water bottles.  You know an error and a spare?  (LOL, just a little British humor folks) He wanted to make a present for his friend who just graduated high school. So let me show a little of the process.First I got out my trusty cutter, the Gazelle, to cut his name in just some cheapo contact paper.  Slapped it to my mat and proceeded to open Make The Cut.

I measured the bottle and it seemed like 6.25″ would be a good width with the letters coming in at 1.25″ high.  In case you would like to know I used the Copperplate Gothic Bold font.

I know you can’t really see it but I just wanted to show you my beautiful cutter.  Isn’t she the cutest?  I have to say, once I got the blade depth thing down and understood it, I can cut anything with this puppy.  I popped the vinyl blade in and it barely scratched the backing paper.  The words cut perfectly and weeded so easily.  I was very impressed.  Next thing to do is just use another piece of contact as transfer paper and place on the bottle.

I filled the hopper one time to show him how it is done and handed the reins over.  Let’s just say he was very excited.  He had his dad’s gloves on, a dust mask and his brother’s goggles from a Chemistry set.  The poor kid had been waiting forever and it was so stinkin’ hot out.  I thought he was going to pass out and told him he didn’t have to do it today if it was too much.  His response?  “Are you kidding me, I get to shoot sand out of a gun at high velocity.  This thing could take my skin off.  Can I just have it now, please?  I have been waiting all week!”  Folks, we have a winner!  Guess who is making my mother-in-law gifts and ornaments this Christmas.  My little slave..urm..my craft laborer.

I told him he could just take the very surface off and give it a frosted look.  Nope, he was having too much fun decimating the paint.  He went down to the bone.  All the while wondering if that’s how Dermatologists felt when doing Microdermabrasion (waaaa?).  I have strange children.

I want to add a note of caution here.  I highly, highly recommend, if nothing else, safety eyewear.  That thing blasts the AO everywhere.  Also, if you don’t wear gloves, the spray hitting your hands gets irritating.

Of course, being that this is one of my projects, it was rife with problems.  I’m not complaining, mind you, it just makes for good stories to tell the grandkids one day. You know the rocking chair on the porch talking about how your dad and I blasted our skin off for not following manufacture’s directions.  Those ones. We all have them right?  Probably not, again, that’s a my life story.

If you are in the market to get one of these, I recommend  to go with a more expensive model.  It’s one of those you get what you pay for things.  I am the last person who thinks you have to pay more for something.  That it somehow makes it better if you paid more than the next guy.  This one we bought kept clogging up the whole time.  It took way longer than I thought it should.  The hopper was also too small.  He could only get half a letter done before it would need refilling again.  That’s 14 times for the measly 6.25″!  Got old really fast.  It finally got the job done but the amount of time fiddling with it to get it to work was really not worth it.  So off I go Saturday to take it back for a refund.  I will do a little more research and get back with you all.

Here’s the final product.  I have to say it looks great.  He had a great idea bringing it all the way down.  Now no one with be able to steal it and claim as their own.  Well, unless they are named Brandon.  My boys said they are going to fill it with crumbled up dollar bills and watch how long it takes him to get them out and count it.  They know it will kill him if he doesn’t do it right then and there. They really do like him, I think it is some kind of man thing.  Torture your friends to show you love them.  I don’t get it but I don’t have too.  Boys…..

A little note card attached to the top with ribbon with probably do the trick with this present.  I’ll post it as soon as I think of an idea and make it.  Hmmmmm…I believe Thienly made a grad card today…

Edit:  I was on a time crunch and needed to get going to the grad party so I just whipped up a little note card with a grad cap.  The cap was a free file from SVG Cuts, I think.  The note card file came from Lettering Delights.

Here is the final project.  Clean, easy and simple.  It was a big hit.

Hehehe, it was too big for my homemade photobox.