Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Bottlecap necklace tutorial

I enjoy making little unique gifts to put in my children's goodie bags for birthday parties. As they get older, they grow out of the little plastic toys that usually come in goodies bags. For my daughter's party, I wanted to make something that would be unique for each of the girls but still something that tied them all together. Does that even make sense? Anyway, I've wanted to make bottlecap necklaces for a while and this seemed like a great opportunity.

Here's what you need:
1. unused bottlecaps (my hubbie is a homebrewer, so we have tons. You can get them off etsy or the internet)
2. mallet for smashing
3. heat gun
4. small images or fancy paper for inside bottlecap
5. Dimension Magic (or possibly Glossy Accents?)
6. tiny drill bit or nail/hammer
7. cord or chain for hanging (from Michael's)
8. jump rings (from Michael's)
9. something for cutting 1 inch circles (die cut machine, punch, etc.)
10. Mod Podge

First, smash your bottlecaps using the mallet. I put the bottlecaps on my cutting mat and smashed them while the mat was on the floor.


Then using your heat gun, heat up the seal inside the bottlecap. When heated, the seal becomes soft and you can pull or scrape it out of the bottlecap.

Using my Cricut, I cut a 1 inch circle from white cardstock. I stamped my image and colored with watercolor pencils.


Using mod podge, adhere the circle inside the bottlecap. Let this dry completely.


Add the dimensional magic to the bottlecap. Fill it up all the way and make sure there are no bubbles.


A few ways to insure no bubbles are to store the bottle upside-down before using it. Also, squeeze out a tiny amount of liquid in the bottle onto a spare piece of paper to get all the bubbles out of the tip. If you do get a bubble, pop it quickly with a safety pin or something sharp.
The dimensional magic will appear cloudy. Let this dry for at least 24 hours. And this is when I started having problems. Turns out the ink and the watercolor pencils smeared and yellowed when the dimensional magic was totally dry. I didn't have any other ink. I also heard that Copic pens don't smear, but I don't have any. So I ended up laminating the stamped circles before adhering them to the bottlecap. I know, total overkill. But it worked and the ink/color stayed true.

My husband then punched holes in the bottlecaps using a nail and a hammer. You could certainly use a drill bit, but we didn't have one small enough. Add the jump rings to the holes in the bottlecaps and string your cord/string through. You are now done!


To personalize them a little bit, I added another jump ring to the bottom and a different colored flower charm to each. My daughter got to pick which color went to which friend. She really enjoyed that. 

The dimensional magic really gives these a nice shine and cover. You can't really see that from the photos. They were a fun item to add to the girl's birthday goodie bags! Now I want to experiment with other inks and markers. It's got to be easier than laminating the circles. These would also be cute with just pretty patterned paper in the middle. No need to worry about ink and pencils.

There you have it, bottlecap necklaces. Thanks for stopping by today!

12 comments:

Aubree said...

My girls would love this!! Thanks for the great tutorial!!

Lee said...

Wow! These are lovely Mara. Now to find some bottle caps. I'd really like to try this.

wendipooh13 said...

what a great tut!!! those are sooo cute and fun!!! I tried your recipe you posted for the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies!! they were delightful- everyone LOVED them!!

Julia Aston said...

What a great idea Mara! love these sweet necklaces! Thanks for sharing your 'issues' too! that always helps so we don't all have the same trials!!

Monique said...

Oh so cute and creative Mara..Love these!!

Joni M said...

What a fun sleep over treat! I bet the girls loved them!

Rebecca Keppel said...

how fun! and what a great work around to avoid smearing!

Michelle H. said...

Awesome tutorial!!
Love the necklace!!
Very pretty!!

VanessaB said...

so cute and fun! you're the coolest crafty mom ever :)

Sue said...

These are ADORABLE!

JULIANA said...

Oh goodness these are too adorable!!!

Jenifer Leone said...

These bottlecaps pendents are really very cute.