What I Did Last Night, and How You Can Make It Too!

Here's my mantle, based on inspiration from Anthropologie.
There are 154 flowers made out of plastic bottles, and it's mounted on black foam core. I constructed the frame out of one 30"x40" piece, cut into thirds. The sides are about 8" wide and the total piece is about 50" tall. I braced up the back with leftover foam core. The bottles are primarily water bottles (Dasani, Aquafina, and generics) with a few juice bottles and soda bottles mixed in. I started by painting them by hand with acrylics, but found better success just spray painting them in lots of 15 (9 different colors). Spray paint made to adhere to plastic didn't necessarily produce better results, and my least-favorite were the latex paints. If you want to recreate my masterpiece, spray the backs of the bottles (outsides) so the insides will appear shiny. AND keep the lids for the flowers you make out of the tops of bottles-- makes gluing everything together so much easier. The piece is heavy enough that you'll want to nail it in place, but it shouldn't be difficult to take down when the season is over.