Here’s another great idea I got from Pinterest, which was originally from Martha Stewart‘s website. Make your own magnets or push pins out of bottle caps. These were easy and fun and the kids all loved making them for themselves and their friends. I sent Evan a bunch at camp with a small piece of corkboard and he loved it too.
I purchased all of the supplies I needed right off Etsy.com. I found everything I needed in Willow Run Crafts’ shop, but you have lots of choices, and may even be able to find all of the supplies at your local crafts store. You can, obviously, also use recycled bottle caps that you’ve collected. I bought two different kinds, the traditional bottle cap or the flattened style. Martha’s instructions called for using a liquid resin over the image, but I chose to use one-inch clear epoxy domes. They were self-adhesive, inexpensive, and really easy to use . If you use them, just be careful to peel them from the edge and hold with the edge of your fingernails, or maybe use some tweezers, as fingerprints will stick to the adhesive and blur your image a bit.
For appropriately small images, try cutting details from large photos. Or, if your software has a contact-sheet mode, use it to reduce pictures drastically. You need an image that fits into a 1″ circle.
Tools and Materials
1-inch circular craft punch
Craft glue
Bottle caps
1″ clear round epoxy domes
Contact cement
Small magnets or thumbtacks
Magnets and Thumbtacks How-To
1. Cut the printed images either into 1″ strips, or cut the individual images out slightly larger than the 1″ area. Using the craft punch, cut out pictures. You can easily put your printed image into the craft punch and see exactly where you need to align it to get the right image cut. I found that a few images just didn’t work and ended up not using them.
2. Using craft glue, attach one picture to the inside of each bottle cap. Let dry. Peel the clear epoxy dome carefully from the paper backing, being careful not to get your fingerprints on the adhesive, and place into the bottlecap over the image. Press down to adhere.
3. Using glue or contact cement, attach magnets or thumbtacks to the backs of the bottle caps. Let dry overnight before using. I also bought on Etsy some paper clip bookmarks that I glued the bottle cap directly to. I also was able to find peel and stick magnets at the hardware store and they worked well too.
The finished products.
I love the peel and stick bookmarks
In almost no time at all I've got a great mixture of magnets, push pins and bookmarks
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