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

Tiny Tin Treasure Boxes

Steve has gone to visit  our kids and grandkids this week.  It is his turn.  It makes me so happy that he is getting to go and be with Elizabeth  and Nathan and their families.  Eddie and I are home holding down the fort.  I made these little tin treasure boxes to send with Steve to the grandsons as a present for them.  I have seen Altoid tin makeovers on Pinterest, and was enthralled with them.  I can't resist "little" things..... I have a longing to touch, feel, collect, create with little things all the time.  So it is nice to have grandsons and a granddaughter to be able to make things for, and share my fun with them.

To make these, for all the grandsons, I need 5 Altoid tins.... and since we rarely ever buy Altoids, I had to go to Sams Club and get a big pack of them.... Eddie was delighted to oblige in eating all the mints for us.  He got one of the tins that he kept refilling with mints as he ran low.  Now he feels a little gypped when there are no more mints to be found in the house. The mints are meant to help with good breath... but I'm not sure how good they are for the teeth... so, hopefully the grandkids will appreciate the sacrifice that Uncle Eddie made to  his teeth in order to get these. Ha, ha; I do believe you can order un-labled tins just like these online if you would prefer.

Supplies

Altoid tins

Scrapbook paper

Stencil paint (for an antique look)
Paintbrush

Mod Podge

Decorations to glue outside and in such as:

Steampunk metal parts found in jewelry or scrapbooking area of craft store,

or check your hubby's shop

Old Monopoly, scrabble or any vintage game pieces

E-6000 glue

Designer tape (scrapbook supply store)

Ribbon 

 Scrapbooking Decorations

Stickers with quotes or scriptures (scrapbook supply store)

Worn out children's books you can cut up

Stencil paint and brush to antique tins

Any "little" thing works... buttons, trinkets, game pieces, beads, scrapbook and jewelry  trinkets, old or foreign coins or keys and so on.

I antiqued the little monopoly playing pieces to match.

This E 6000 is great for gluing the ribbon around the box, and the decorations on top and inside.  When you use it, you don't have to worry about things just falling off or popping off like you do with other glue.

Love this "Designer tape".  It can be found in Scrapbook supply stores, and like the ribbon,  is great for decorating the outside edges.

Instructions

Sorry I didn't think to take pictures of the beginning of this... but the first couple of steps are 
easy peasy,and so much of this is really just "serendipity" 
  It will come together easily for you.

1.    To begin, cut pieces of scrapbooking paper to go on top, inside lid, and inside bottom; you 
could also   cut one out for the underneath bottom if you like (I didn't decorate the
 bottoms... you could  and  it would look wonderful. Use the tin itself as a stencil. 
  Glue them on with Mod Podge,  then paint the outside of the paper
and tin with Mod Podge.

2.    Once the Mod Podge is dry to the touch (Give it 24 hours), check and make sure you
 can shut the lids of the boxes easily... if you got too much Mod Podge 
on inner corners or outer corners or  edges,   sand, pick, or peel it down until
 the lid shuts easily.   

3.    Glue  metal elements on such as keys or locks etc.

4.    Put scriptures on from Scripture sticker pack.

5.    Using your stencil paint and brush, paint edges inside and out to create an antique effect.

       You can blend it with the brush, or even smudge it with your fingers.

6.    Allow Paint to dry about 24 hours.

7.    Glue ribbon on outer edge of tin, or put designer tape around edge.

8.    Glue on final decorations.

               Antiqued around the metal elements  to keep the continuity of the aged look....

 as well as the inside edges, and outside lip of the tin

 Put the Mod Podge and paint on the outer edges of the red paint on the tin, to tone down the "new"  look, and make it look very old. Try not to Mod Podge the hinges, for this will cause a little problem with closing, and don't get the Mod Podge too thick inside the corners of the lid, or the outer edges of the tin, because it will make it difficult to close.. and take one guess why I know this.

 If you do get too much Mod Podge in places you don't want it, you can pick, peel, and sand it down,

so that you don't have any problem closing your lid... I did this and it worked.  Remember this is supposed to look old, so imperfections work into that look perfectly.

Ribbon or designer tape around the outer edge is nice.

 I gave a theme to each tin, and worked around it with tags, scriptures and decorations.

This one has an angel's wing;  I used the scripture "For He shall give His Angels charge concerning you", from Psalm 91 and put the wing on a  peg which I glued to the lid.  I then put  a little glue on the top and outer edge of the top  of the peg to keep the wing from coming off when it was  closed.  I was careful not to put too much glue on though, because I still want it to move back and forth.

 When you slide the wing, you can see a little friend hiding behind it.

 When I was little, I loved hearing about how Jesus and the Angels watched over me.  It made me feel safe.  I like to remind the little ones about that.

This one has a treasure chest pendant I got in the jewelry making supplies of the craft store.

It opens up.  

I put little tiny golden beads in it.  The top stays closed with a magnet, so those little tiny beads won't fall out.  Of course little grandson fingers might want to get them out... but that's okay.

The stickers are sheer except for the lettering; I put them all over the tin.  I also made  cards with scriptures and pictures for memory verses, and fun.

 Each Scripture card had a different element to it, and had something on both sides of the card to look at and read.

I  cut out pictures from an old torn up Richard Scarry book,  Mod Podged  it to a piece of scrapbook paper, and then mod podged both sides.  Once dry, I cut them out for little cards to play with and keep in their  tins.  I thought they might be fun to play with in Church, or somewhere they needed to sit quietly.

                        Glow in the dark stars and a few little toys added to the final treasures.

I hope these will give you some ideas of something fun to make with those Altoid Tins...I'm still thinking up ideas with them.. I think I might have to make some "girly ones" next.

Have a great week.