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Sunday, January 10, 2010

Bottle Cap Embellishment: Soda Put To Good Use


I am awake incredibly too late watching old movies with my husband, so I thought I'd go ahead and post a quick tutorial on what I experimented with this evening. My husband has a hobby, if that's what you'll call it, of trying various brands of root beer and cream soda. That being so, we have lots and lots of bottle caps lying around. How could I not find something crafty to do with them? I messed up slightly on my Bottle Cap Embellishment, but that just means that you can all learn from my mistake. Enjoy!

Materials Needed:
  • Bottle Cap
  • Utee (Extra Thick Embossing Enamel)
  • Paper
  • Small Embellishments, such as Tim Holtz's Grungeboard Mixed Minis
  • Glue
  • Ink
  • Heat tool, or oven
  • *Optional - 24 guage wire
1- If you want to use your bottle cap has a necklace, or just want to be able to hang it some where, bend a small piece of the wire like I have done, and place it in the cap. You don't have to glue it down, but you can to make sure it won't move while you work.

2 - Cut out a circle of paper to line the bottom of your cap.

3 - Glue it in. I used Glossy Accents by Ranger

4 - Press the background paper into the bottle cap, being sure to press the edges.

5 - Using other flat embellishments, create your background.

6-8 - Using pieces from the Grungeboard Mixed Minis, create another embellishment for your cap. I used the heart and crown, and inked them with Spiced Marmalade and Aged Mahogony Distress Inks by Tim Holtz. Set this aside for now.

9 -10 - Fill the cap with UTEE, and do one of two things. Either heat it with a heat gun (which could cause the powder to go flying every where), or bake them at 250 degrees in an oven. This is where I messed up. Be very, very careful not to over heat the UTEE, or it will turn yellow, like mine did. Once it starts to melt, it only takes a few seconds to completely melt through. Remove from the oven, and let it cool for a few mintues.

11 - You'll notice that once the UTEE has cooled, it only fills about half of the cap.

12-13 - Place the second embellishment that you made in the cap where you want it positioned, and cover it once again in UTEE

14 - Repeat the baking/heating process, let it cool, and you're finished!

What I've learned: Don't over heat UTEE, or it will bubble and turn yellow - no fun. Also, stop chewing my nails, people can see them in my photos.

I hope this inspires some one out there to make a bottle cap embellishment of their very own!

7 comments:

  1. Great Tutorial! I love the warning about using the heat gun. I wonder if it would work if I put it in a dry melting pot? TFS : )

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  2. this is great! thanks for the additional tips. I love everything I have seen on your blog!

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  3. I keep saying I'm going to try this -- I gotta do it; I can think of so many posssibilities for those bottle caps. TFS!

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  4. Love your little tutorial! Great job!! I like to smash my bottle caps with my Wizard die cut machine. And when I plan on using as a pendant, I get a metal heavy duty thumb tack and hammer a little hole through the top of the bottle cap and add a jump ring. Your blog totally rocks!! So glad I stumbled across while searching Tim HOltz

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  5. This looks pretty awesome! Gonna check it out more when I have time!

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  6. Awesome blog. Don't feel bad...I bite my nails also...grrr...:)

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~Courtney