Bottle Cap Wind Chimes

By Amanda Marks

Today I am taking using some found objects as well as bottle caps from The Bottle Cap Company to create a wind chime.

1.  Materials:

• Old DVD/CD
• Fiskars® Butterfly Punch
• Fiskars® 1" Circle Punch
• Terri Sprouls Mixers (Shimmers)
• 15 Bottle Caps
• Pokey Tool
• 3D Crystal Lacquer
• Jump Rings (lots - 75)
• Bakers Twine
• Acetate
• Ruler
• Spray Paint

2.  Mark off lines 1 1/2" and drawn lines.

3.  Poke holes 1/4" from the edge (there should be 5 holes).

4.  Mark a dot on each side of the bottle cap.

5.  Take a pokey tool pierce through the metal of the bottle cap.

6.  I wanted all of my bottle caps the same color, so I took spray paint and spray painted everything.

7.  Allow the spray paint to dry.

8.  Taking a 1" Circle punch and punch 15 circles.

9.  Take 3D Crystal Lacquer and add one circle to the inside of each bottle cap.  Add a mixer of Crystal Lacquer and Shimmer to Acetate.  Allow acetate to dry.  Take mixers and lacquer mixer and add to the inside of the bottle caps.  Allow the bottle caps to dry.

10.  Take butterfly punch and punch butterflies out of the acetate.  Add butterflies to the inside and the outside of the bottle caps with 3D Crystal Lacquer.

11.  Allow Crystal Lacquer to dry.

12.  Open jump ring.

13.  Place one jump ring through the hole.

14.  Attach a second jump ring to the first jump ring.

15.  Attach the other bottle cap to the jump ring.  Repeat until you have 1 - bottle cap on 3 jump rings, 2 - bottle caps hooked together, 3 bottle caps hooked together, 4 bottle caps hooked together, and 5 bottle caps hooked together.  Attach the bottle caps to the DVD with jump rings.  Take Bakers Twine and attach 5 pieces of twine to the top and create a hanger.  Hang outside.

TOP TEN Embellishments!

My post today is my "TOP TEN" Embellishments to make using Sakura Crystal Lacquer and Terri Sproul Mixers.

NUMBER ONE: BOTTLE CAPS

Save bottle caps, adhere images to the bottle cap with a dab of Crystal Lacquer.  Add a thick coat of Lacquer and set aside to dry overnight.  Above there is a hint of color --- Terri Sproul Mixers - Tanzanite Pearl and Pink Sapphire Pearl. 

The bottle cap on the right is dressed up with a ring of gold seed beads added to the rim. 

NUMBER TWO: ORNAMENTS

These could be used on cards, packages or even as tree ornaments. Use Fancy Pants Frames and Graphic 45 papers cut to fit, cover with Crystal Lacquer.  Set aside to dry 24 hours.

NUMBER THREE: CARD TRIM
First Image bottom to top:  Add VLVS! Miracle Tape to the edge of card, remove protective covering, add trinkets and fill in with seed beads. Cover with Crystal Lacquer, set aside to dry 24 hours. Learned this from Terri Sproul on one of her Monday Night Shows!

NUMBER FOUR: CREATIVE PAPERCLAY®  Objects created with Creative Paperclay can be painted with Crystal Lacquer mixed with Terri Sproul Mixers. Dries in about 20 minutes. Face and Dolls - Gold and Paris - Pink Sapphire Pearl.

NUMBER FIVE: CHARMS 

Silver charms can be made any color you desire with Crystal Lacquer mixed with Terri Sproul Mixers - Tanzanite Pearl and Pink Sapphire Pearl.

NUMBER SIX: GAME PEICES SCRABBLE
Game pieces make great embellishments, above Scrabble pieces are painted the Crystal Lacquer mixed with Terri Sproul Mixers - Pink Shimmer.

NUMBER SEVEN: GAME PEICES BINGO

Bingo numbers topped with Crystal Lacquer are another idea for an super embellishment. 

NUMBER EIGHT: BRADS
Take ordinary brads and make them glitter.  Paint a dab of Lacquer on the top of the brads and dip them in Terri Sprouls Ultra Fine Glitter.

NUMBER NINE: STEAMPUNK HEARTS

With Creative Paperclay® cut small hearts, paint them burgundy and dry. Cover with Crystal Lacquer, add watch parts and gears. Set aside to dry overnight. 

NUMBER TEN: BUTTONS
Don't have the right color of buttons?  Then paint white buttons with Crystal Lacquer mixed with Terri Sproul Mixers - above are Shimmer Violet.

You are only limited by your imagination... Please comment and let me know what embellishments you have made with Sakura Crystal Lacquer and Terri Sproul Mixers! OR what you are thinking you might create!

Fridge magnets.

Happy Monday friends!! I'm pretty excited for todays post. I've made some magnets! It's pretty simple, but, it makes a GREAT gift, especially birthday, Christmas, etc. 

So, I started out by going through a magazine. YES, a MAGAZINE! I like to find craft magazines, catalogs, etc. Things that will have small patterns, perfect for bottle caps, which are 1" in diameter. If you have something particular in mind, you can also look around online and find great bottle cap graphics.

Bottle Cap Co has some BEAUTIFUL images, they're a little expensive, at $10 per sheet, however, totally worth it considering the number of images you get, and how many times you can use them. I've got my eye on their Halloween pages. They're gorgeous, and I just found the company by googling "digital bottle cap images". 

I started by punching four little circles from heavy card stock.

 Then I used Crystal Lacquer to adhere the layers together, making them sturdier.

Now that the four circles are attached together, I can add some Crystal Lacquer to the top layer and attach the magazine cut out. 

Here are all five layers (four card stock layers, one magazine layer).

Next, add some Crystal Lacquer into the bottle cap. Just enough to fill the bottom of the cap entirely.

Now, put the stack of papers in the bottle cap and fill it with Crystal Lacquer.

I like to use E6000 to attach the magnets to the back. After 24ish hours, it's ready to use!

I added some glitter to my cap as well, because the image said "happy birthday" and since we celebrated my daughters 6th birthday, it was perfect! 

Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll try out the bottle cap art! It's so easy, and lots of fun, and again, it makes a great gift for anyone of any age! 

Thanks for the Bottle Caps

I love when inspiration arrives via USPS. My sister, Noel, follows my posts on the Crystal Lacquer Blog and thought I might be able to use 7 Fitz's Premium Root Beer bottle caps.

Yummy, this project was bit like eating good candy. I couldn't stop at just one bottle cap.

What is nice about the Fitz's bottle caps is that they are a twist off, so the shape is not distorted.

Several pieces of inspiration were found at Zinnia in South Pasadena, including this old broach. I used an Exact-O knife to remove the remaining faux diamonds. Be VERY careful doing this as I nicked my finger and don't recommend the experience.

You begin to see where I am going, when the bottle cap fits perfectly within the broach setting.

The picture below is not in focus; however, I wanted to show what the Pearl Color 3D Crystal Lacquer looked like dropped into each individual slot.

In the bottle cap itself, I used an image left over from my last "Film Noir" project. I covered the image with Yellow 3D Crystal Color Lacquer - Glitter Primary to give it a little sparkle. Once everything was dry (give it time to dry!), I glued the pieces together and applied a pin back.

As I mentioned above, I could not stop at 1 bottle cap. I had all sorts of "found" objects and 3D Color Crystal Lacquer to play with.

A cool looking bead set into Glitter Violet 3D Crystal Color Lacquer.

Blue 3D Crystal Lacquer with Metallic Blue swirled in. Dolphin pieces were applied after the blue swirl layer dried.

The small fancy glass piece was left over from a prior project and had been stamped with the butterfly image. Not that you can tell from the image, but a layer of Pearl 3D Crystal Lacquerwas applied underneath. Then the glass piece, followed by the small square frame on top.

Glitter Yellow 3D Crystal Color Lacquer and small plastic flower placed after first layer dried.

Ready for Halloween? Orange Glitter Primary & black spider. Creepy!

Below is my absolute favorite piece . . . of all the bottle caps.

The image inside the cap is from Bottle Cap Images - Vintage Edition. Covered with a layer of3D Crystal Lacquer. I attached the crown using glue and used a bail at the bottom to add the pearl drop. All of the bails used for this project were from Sakura Craft.

Keep on feeding your Creative Soul!

~Heather Morrow