I remember many years ago when bottle caps were all the rave in scrapbooking.  And then they went “out of style” for quite some time.  But guess what?  Sort of like skinny jeans and stirrup pants, THEY’RE BAA-AACK!  (Though I’m much more excited about the return of bottle caps than I am of stirrup pants, I must say!)

I happen to love bottle caps, and I loved the booth set up by Bottle Cap, Inc. at Winter CHA – those giant glass orbs filled with bottle caps, all the beautiful art made with bottle caps…and the new accessories designed to make it easy for anyone to quickly turn a bottle cap into an embellishment or jewelry.

I was thrilled when Josh, the owner of Bottle Cap, Inc., sent me some products from their new Vintage Edition line to try out.  They have vintage-looking bottle caps, petal caps, images to punch out, epoxy stickers, chains, and pendants.

I first took one of the petal caps, and punched a hole in it so that I could attach a jump ring and attach it to a chain.  On the back side of the petal cap, I placed a self-adhesive epoxy sticker.  On the inside of the petal cap, I glued a punched image that I had glued an acrylic cabachon to.

The images come in a sheet like this –

Images come on a sheet ready to be punched with a 1" circle paper punch

Then you can either add a clear epoxy sticker or a clear acrylic cabachon over the punched paper image (or alternate options as I will mention later).

Petal cap with epoxy sticker

I love the way the petal cap looks, and I love that I quickly created a reversible necklace!

Next, I tried working with the Vintage Edition standard-size bottle caps.  These have a unique look to them, so they are fun to use either showing the inside or the back side.

Vintage Edition bottle caps

I decided to create a tag and use the bottle caps as embellishments.

Tag with bottle caps as embellishments

The top bottle cap was created using a punched image and a clear epoxy sticker, and the lower bottle cap was created using a punched image and melted clear UTEE.  I really enjoyed the process of melting UTEE right in the bottle caps – I can see myself doing that again in the future.  If you’d like to find out more about how I made this tag, check out my post about it on my craft blog, My Craft Friend Jen.

Finally, I wanted to try out a really cool feature I had noted about the pendants.  I had received both a 1/2″ pendant and a 1″ pendant, as well as magnets in those same sizes.  The idea is to create interchangeable centers for the pendants, so that you can switch out the centers as your mood (or wardrobe) dictates.

The pendants come in both copper and silver, and in a hammered style or beaded style.  They have an image on one side (the 1″ has a butterfly and the 1/2″ a bird), and an opening on the other side for the magnetic image.

1" beaded copper pendant

I started with the 1″ pendant.  I took 3 epoxy stickers, and adhered them to three 1″ magnets.  The magnets are quite thin (only 1/16″ thick), but VERY strong!  (In fact, I had trouble getting them apart from each other and they repeatedly attracted all the metal pieces on my desk!)  I love the look of the pieces in the pendant.  The only difficulty is in trying to remove the pieces to exchange them – but I found that simply using one of the other magnet pieces to pull it out was the easiest way to remove it.

1" pendant with epoxy sticker/magnet combo

1" pendant with epoxy sticker/magnet combo

1" pendant with epoxy sticker/magnet combo

Then I created some centers for the 1/2″ pendant as well.  For this one, I did not have epoxy stickers; I had paper images – the Nostalgic line.  I punched the images using a 1/2″ circle paper punch, used Glossy Accents to glue on an acrylic cabachon, and then used Glossy Accents again to attach the magnet.  (Note: One thing I found consistently throughout all of the products was a lack of any instructions or suggestions, whether it be what type of glue to use, how to use a certain product, or when to use one thing versus another.  However, I didn’t find this to be a significant problem for me personally, and I think the products are fairly intuitive for the most part.)

1/2" pendant with paper, cabachon and magnet

1/2" pendant with multiple centers

All of these projects turned out just lovely, and they were fun to make.  But the great thing about bottle caps is that you don’t have to be limited to just the images provided by the company.  I have a basket where I keep magazines and catalogs from companies that have images I love or colors that excite me…to use in collage art or other recycle art.  Seeing as April is all about earth-friendly crafting, I wanted to show how you can also incorporate recycling even when using new products like these bottle caps.

I was leafing through a recent Anthropologie catalog – filled with gorgeous images – and found a hanging lamp I loved.  I used my 1″ circle paper punch to punch a portion of the lamp, and put it in one of the petal caps.  I also found the words, “shining” and “light,” cut them out, and put them in the petal cap.  I covered the images with UTEE, and placed the entire petal cap in the toaster oven to melt the UTEE.  A quick punch to make a hole for a jump ring, and it’s now ready to go on a necklace!

Recycle craft pendant from petal cap

Overall, I really enjoyed playing with these bottle caps and pendants.  The company has some really fun images to go along with their products, and I love the interchangeable pendant concept.

The bottom line?  Here’s the price lowdown.  For 12 of the Antique Gold bottle caps, the MRSP is $3.99.  One package (2 sheets) of 1″ images will cost you $3.49.  A 1″ pendant goes for $6.99, and the chain to go with it is an additional $2.49 for beaded or $4.99 for traditional chain.  A set of six 1″ epoxy stickers runs $5.49, and three 1″ magnets will cost you $5.99.  So here’s my thing.  I love the product.  But.  To make a 1″ pendant with 3 exchangeable magnetic centers, the supplies will cost you about $25.49.  If you look at it from the standpoint as getting 3 different necklaces for that price, then it may well be worth the price to you.

Me?  While I loved playing with these products from Bottle Cap, Inc., I will continue to save all of our bottle caps in a found items tin…and I’ll be continuing to punch out images from magazines and covering them in UTEE.  😉

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