Fun with Bottle Caps

When I was making my Tiny Tin Treasure Boxes  for the grandkids, I also had some fun with bottle caps.  I wanted to add a vintage "doodad" to the tins, and chose these as something to add.  I decided it would be a great project for Marie and the boys and I to do when they were visiting; So we had a bottle cap day; the boys loved it and wanted to make one after another.

There are plenty of ideas for what to do with these.   Make a necklace, key chain or  magnet; decorate scrapbooks or picture frames; trade them,  create games with them, or just let them jingle  in little pockets.  The kids enjoyed making gifts with them, and they turned into very nice gifts.

Supplies

You can purchase precut pictures and stickers for this project, or cut your own with a 1 inch round paper punch.  

Decide on your picture and use the window on the punch to place the picture in the right position.

Push down and retrieve your circle.

Put glue evenly over the bottom of the picture and put in the bottle cap.

Smooth the glue evenly by rubbing the picture all over.

 Brush with Mod Podge;  This will seal the picture, and keep it from looking faded, darkened or spotty once the resin is poured over it.

Let the Mod Podge dry 10 to 15 minutes until it is  clear and no longer milky colored.  Then paint another coat of Mod Podge and allow to dry until clear.

Next comes the "Dimensional Magic"/ or what I am calling resin.  Before you squeeze the resin into the cap, turn the resin bottle upside down and tap it to bring all the resin down to the nozzle.  Squeeze a little out onto a scrap of paper to get rid of the air bubbles. Now drip into your bottle cap. If you already have a hole punched in the cap for jewelry making, watch that you don't pour the resin in above the hole.

If you get bubbles like this one (this happened several times to me before I learned how to squeeze a little resin out of the bottle first...after that it happened less), use a pin or tooth pick to pop them; and let me tell you they were stubborn bubbles, they didn't want to pop easily.  If you don't pop the bubbles, they will leave a definite  air bubble in the finished product... one of my mistakes....

Let the resin dry about 48 hours.  They will be dry to touch in 24, but if your little guys poke them too hard, they may still be soft in the center and leave a messy hole (take one guess why I know this).

Gather what is wanted for key chains.

If you haven't already done it, punch a hole in the side of your cap with a metal hole punch (you can also buy bottle caps with the hole already punched in them), then add a jump ring, to attach it to a necklace,  earring or key chain.

                      

    Use pliers to open jump ring, and then close it again once it is on the bottle cap.

Find a vintagey  keychain that you like and attach  bottle cap with the jump ring.

Gather what is wanted for magnets.

Use a good strong magnet and glue it to the back of a bottle cap.

I used the E6000 glue for this part (it is strong and adhere's quickly).

Reuse and decorate an altoid tin to make a magnet gift box.

Put one on an old chain to make a vintage necklace.  This cap is an example of one whose color darkened and faded because I didn't seal it first with Mod Podge.  I did happen to like its old vintagey cowboy look, so in this case I didn't mind.

Supplies

 1.     Bottle caps; If you want to buy them, you can get them with or without holes already in them. 

 2.    Pictures to put in them; you can buy them already cut out, get a 1 inch punch and cut them out yourself,  trace a circle on the back side of a picture or photo using a quarter as a stencil.

 3.     White Craft Glue or Mod Podge to glue picture in place

 4.     Mod Podge

 5.     Modpoge  Dimensional Magic (Resin)

 6.     Metal Hole Punch (Optional)

 7.     Metal Jump Ring (found in jewelry supply)

 8.     Metal Chain 

 9.     Key Chain

10.    Heavy duty Magnets (The cheap roll that you cut doesn't work very well; it is worth   
         spending the money to get the stronger ones)

11.    E6000 Craft Glue

Instructions

  1.    Prepare your picture  by peeling it from the sticker page, or use a 1inch circle punch and punch
         out a circle from paper/picture of choice, or trace around the outside of a quarter  onto the
         backside of your picture (be sure to do this in pencil, so that the ink doesn't bleed once the resin
         is poured).

  2.    Glue the picture to the bottom of  the bottle cap with the white craft glue or Mod Podge;
         Completely cover the bottom of the picture and smooth it out carefully into the bottle cap. Allow
         to dry about 10 minutes.  This secures your picture so that it won't float up into the resin (one of
         my mistakes).

  3.    Lightly Paint Mod Podge on the top of it to seal it. This will keep the color of your picture  
         from  darkening and fading and  allow to dry about 10 minutes.

  4.    Paint another coat of Mod Podge, so that it is fully sealed.  Allow to dry 15 minutes.
  5.    Drip your Mod Podge resin over the picture inside the bottle cap, leaving a little space at the top      
         which will allow you to punch a hole in the side of the cap once dry.
  6.    Allow caps to dry at least  48 hours to ensure it is fully dry.
  7.    Once the resin is dry, these can quickly be glued to magnets with the E6000 glue

  8.    You may also punch a hole in them to make a necklace, earrings or a keychain.  If you don't
         have metal hole puncher, you can purchase bottle caps with the holes already made.
  9.    Place a jump ring through the hole  using pliers to open and close the ring. 

10.    Hang on chain, earring or keychain

Have fun

Pam