Once in a blue moon, my husband brews his own batch of beer. The other day, when he was cleaning out the shed, he found some old bottle caps that wouldn't seal properly. Being the smart guy that he is, he asked if I could do anything with them. Now, for your crafting enjoyment, is my version of the popular bottle cap necklace. Use your littlest stamp images to make a cool design for your favorite teenager.c
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE
Materials & Tools List
The Steps
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE
1. Using the awl, hammer and cutting board, lean a bottle cap on its edge and carefully make small holes in selected places on the inside flange of each cap. I made three holes in mine -- one for a split ring to attach a necklace and two on the opposite side, for split rings, wire and beads.
2. Run a small ring of opaque or white glue around the plastic seal inside each cap. Using a coffee filter under the cap, sprinkle fine glitter on top of the glue then let it dry.
3. Make a line of sticky notes across a piece of white card stock. I used imprinted notes by ALLTEL, given away at a trade show. Sponge yellow ink over the edge of the sticky notes. This will create a solid ink line underneath the notes. Use this line for positioning your sticky notes on the other side, before you sponge on the orange ink. This technique is called "masking."
4. Using black ink, rubber stamp a small image across the two inkpad colors. After the ink has dried, you can apply the Page Pebbles on top of the rubber stamped image.
5. Using a paper punch that matches the size of the Page Pebbles, punch out your design token. Punch with the hole facing you, so you can where to position the punch. If you're concerned about damaging the Page Pebble or the punch, use a pair of scissors to cut around the circle or token.
6. Attach the token to one side of a piece of super-tacky double-sided tape. Using scissors this time -- because the tape will get stuck in the paper punch -- cut around the token carefully. I use the Velvet Touch Scissors by Armada Art because the Art Accentz Terrifically Tacky Tape doesn't stick to them.
7. After the glue is dry on the bottle cap, use a piece of double-stick tape wrapped around your finger or a small paintbrush to remove any glitter from unwanted places. Do this before you put the design tokens inside the bottle caps or your tacky tape won't stick very well.
8. Peel off the tape backing on each token then place it, design side up, in the middle of the bottle cap seal. Push all around the token to make sure the token fits within and the tacky tape adheres to the seal. Now protect the glitter plus create a seal around the Page Pebble by applying Dimensional Magic in a thin circle around the design token.
9. Now you are ready to add wire, beads and/or charms. Cut a few 4-to-5 inch pieces of wire. Using jewelry pliers or a wire wrapping stick or mandrel, wrap your wire in circles, as if you were making small springs. Add beads or charms to the wire in selected places and continue wrapping in between bead sections. Make each dangly embellishment up to 2 inches long, but vary the length in each pair to create visual interest. If you like, finish each dangly by wrapping the end wire into a spring shape.
10. Using a pair of split ring jewelry pliers, add split rings to the holes in the bottle cap. Now you can add the bead danglies and necklace. On the left is my finished bottle cap creation, as described in this project. On the right is a pair of earrings and a necklace I made as a display sample for a Tucson-area crafts store. Instead of rubber stamps for the design, I used a printout of Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus," manipulated in a graphic arts software program.
Project Tips
Product Resource Guide
Save to Del.icio.us
