I have always wanted to try my hand at cutting glass bottles and upcycling them into new pieces, but for some reason I never got around to it. I've even collected pretty wine and liquor bottles with the hopes of creating something with them some day. When I heard about the Art Of Patron bottle upcycling contest, I knew it was time to try glass cutting at last! I'm so glad I did, too, because I am completely in love with the cheese serving set I ended up creating.

The first thing I had to do was learn how to cut glass bottles. I did some research and found lots of quick-and-easy tricks out there, but the best results seemed to come from just hard-core cutting. The method I chose required the use of a wet saw, which is typically used for cutting tile. I already have one of those from when I re-tiled the kitchen a few years ago. Yay for me!

I mounted a scrap piece of wood to the gauge to give a nice smooth surface to glide the glass along, and I grabbed my beautiful glass Patron bottles and some safety goggles.

Okay, I admit it. I practiced on an old beer bottle first, to be sure I had the feel for how the glass cutting would go. I strongly recommend some practicing if you're new to glass cutting. I learned very quickly how important it is to go slowly and turn the glass smoothly as you cut.

I cut the tops off of three small bottles, so I could use them as small bowls.

Then I cut the bottom off of a large Patron bottle, as close to the bottom as I could.

There was ground glass dust and tiny shards on all the pieces by the time I was done cutting, and I didn't want to hose them off on the driveway, so I washed the pieces in a tub of water that I later dumped in a safe area.

The bottles were cut, but I wasn't too pleased with the rough edges.

This is where my second tool came in... a glass grinder! These are typically used by stained glass artists for detailed adjustments to glass pieces, and it was the perfect tool for smoothing out the chips in the edges of my cut bottles.

What a huge difference the grinder makes on the edges!

The edges still weren't totally smooth, though, so I had one more finishing step. I used some wet-dry sandpaper and sanded the edges under a gentle stream of water. This really helped polish the ground edges.

The bottles were now all cut, and I was very pleased with the results. The three little bowls would make perfect vessels for snacks to go with a cheese plate, like nuts or olives. My idea for the large bottle was to make it a cloche for covering the cheese.

But the cheese needed something to sit on, and I wanted it to be just as special as the glass pieces were. My Grandpa used to make cutting boards, and I've saved several of them to re-use for other projects. I had one that had a lot of damage overall, but had a great area that I could easily use for this project, so I pulled it out of storage.

I traced the bottle's base onto the board, then drew a parallel line all the way around, about an inch and a half from the first line.

I used a router to create a recess in the middle of the board, so that the bottle would have something to sit in.

I gotta say, as much as I love crafting with things like fabric, paint, and paper, it sure was fun to do this project and dig out all my fun tools from the garage!

I used my miter saw (Yay, another tool!) to cut off large chunks of wood near the outline.

Then I used the belt sander to smooth all the edges and round it all out nicely.

Then some hand-sanding with sandpaper was all I needed to finish the board.

I got to use this set last night when my parents came over for dinner, and putting together the whole collection was so much fun. I put almonds, olives, and crackers in the bowls to serve with the cheese.

Then I put a big hunk of cheese on the board and covered it with the bottle cloche.

I especially love how the Patron bee logo looks with the cheese behind it. It's such a fun centerpiece to a dinner party!

Be sure to keep an eye on the Art of Patron contest page for more ideas on how to transform Patron bottles into fun works of art.