Bottle Cap Necklaces!

Wow! I can hardly believe it is May already. It is supposed to reach 24 degrees today (74 for those of you in the US!) and I believe it. It must be 20 already! It has been such a beautiful spring! We have had record breaking temperatures since March and just enough rain to keep the air fresh. When I see all of the wild weather phenomenons happening around the world recently, it reminds me how blessed I am to live in Eastern Canada.

The last few weeks I have been tinkering away at completing our Disney scrapbook. Although I haven't been scrapping a lot, I am keeping busy creatively! My daughter (T) and I have been making bottle cap necklaces. Her class is attending French Immersion camp in June and she has been selling the necklaces at school to earn money for the registration fee. It is a fairly simple craft that we can work on together, and she really enjoys being able to earn her own money.

I have had a lot of people ask me how we made the bottle cap necklaces, so instead of a scrapbook page, I'll leave you with instructions for making our version of a bottle cap necklace!

Supplies needed: Bottle caps (we purchased ours from a beer & wine making store, but if you know someone who drinks beer you could get them for free!), Steel wool or fine sandpaper, Aleene's Tacky Glue (or another good quality strong glue), Clear varnish, 1 inch circle punch, hammer, small nail, old paint brushes, little rings (kind of like tiny key chain rings - I got them in the craft section at Walmart) shoe laces or ribbon, and images you would like to put on your bottle cap charm!

Step 1: Find images you would like to use for your charms on the internet, in magazines or from your own photographs. (I used Adobe Photoshop to crop the images into a square and resize them to 1"x1". I then put 15 images into a 4"x6" image and printed them like I would any other photo.) Use the 1" circle punch to punch out your images.

Step 2: Slightly flatten the bottle caps with the hammer (be sure to do this on a surface that you don't mind getting scratched up a bit!). I found it better to hammer lightly all around the edges so that the middle of the bottle cap doesn't get pushed in too far.

Step 3: Lightly scuff the surface of the bottle caps with sandpaper or steel wool so the glue will adhere better.

Step 4: Evenly cover the surface of the bottle cap with glue & center your image onto the bottle cap. I find using a small paintbrush to apply the glue helps get an even coat. Allow the glue to dry at least a few hours.

Step 5: Apply 2 or 3 coats of clear varnish following the manufacturer's instructions. Allow to dry for at least 24 hours.

Step 6: Using a hammer and a small nail, make a small hole at the top of the bottlecap. You might have to use some pliers or something to bend down any pointy edges on the back.

Step 7: Insert the little metal rings into the holes. String your charm onto the shoelace or ribbon & you're done!