I Spy Bottles

I have been stock piling these little Gatorade bottles knowing that I would find some use for them eventually.  I was looking through a kid's toy catalog and saw those really cool "I Spy" bottle games with the items hidden in beads or something like that.  I saw that and the light bulb went off. 

I was thinking that I could make one for each letter of the alphabet, (yes, I had that many).  So I made a couple but then my son wanted one with just vehicles in it.  So I began doing some theme based bottles as well.  We love spinning and shaking these bottles.  So much fun. 

Here is how I did it---

First I washed and dried the bottles and took off the labels.  Then I poured white rice into zip lock bags and added a few drops of food coloring.  Then shake, shake, shake your booty...until all the rice is one color.  I did this with several different colors.  The kids had fun with this part too!  Then I poured a little of each color into the bottles.  I added items like those little shaped erasers, beads in the shape of different items, whatever you can find that will fit through the top is doable.  Next, I just taped the lid on so that every once in a while I can change out the items inside to keep them fresh. 

Shake away!!