Preparing Bottle Caps

It's raining. No sun, cold. Boredom, lack of inspiration, nobody available, no interest in cooking, not feelink like playing some music... what can you do??? What about preparing some material to have it ready when you feel creative??! You don't want to lose time when you feel inspired, you need to start working as soon as an idea pops in your head.

So I spent a whole last rainy day preparing some bottle caps. Usually, when I want to make something with a cap I need to flat them, paint them, wait until they're dry, repaint, wait again..... and then (after one hour or more) I can start my project.... So I decided to make all this preparatory work on a rainy day to have the caps ready when I need them.

Here you have a tutorial to show you how you can prepare your caps easily. I will also show you how you can handle them without damaging the design on them (if you want to keep it, that is).

MATERIALS:

- Bottle caps

- Acrylic Spray Paint / Nail Polish

- Vanish / Clear Nail Polish

TOOLS:

- A hammer

- Two pieces of wood (to hammer on them)

- Flat nose pliers

- A piece of fabric /cloth (I used and old and clean sock I keep to make some gloves)

- A Gimlet

- A Cutter

There are two different types of bottle caps: those I don't care about the desig and which I paint (the easiest ones to get) and the ones I want to keep as they are (from special drinks or with cool designs). We gonna start with the ones I paint, so I don't need to be careful with the paint or the designs:

Take the wood pieces, the hammer and the pliers. Fold the edge of the cap with the pliers, as you see on the pictures. You need to be careful and fold them evenly, if not, you will warp the cap.

Then take the wood and place the cap between the two pieces. Hold it and hammer on it. Be sure you hammer evenly, not only in one side (if not, the cap will become twisted and warped). If you think you're finished, take a look at the cap; if you like it, you can proceed to the next step, if not, hammer in again.

If you what to keep the design or the color of the cap, you need a piece of fabric. Take the pliers and place the fabric between the cap and the pliers. This will prevent you from damaging the paint.

When you flat the cap, you also need to put the fabric between the cap and the wood. This will keep the paint untouched.

Inside the cap there's a piece of plastic. You need to remove it. To do that, take a cutter and place the point under the plastic. Separate carefully it from the cap. First do the edges and then the middle. If you remove it quickly some plastic will remain and it will be very difficult to remove it.

OPTIONAL: Take the gimlet and make the holes you need to turn the caps into collars, bracelets, etc. I make them now because if the caps are already painted you will remove the paint. To do that, you need to place the cap on the wood and then drill with the gimlet (take a look at the pictures).

Now you need to paint or to varnish them. If don't want to keep the design, you can paint them with an spay or some nail polish. Nail polish dries faster than spray, but spray paint will leave a clean coat without brush marks. To avoid the brush marks when using the nail polish, you need to use a fairly good amount of paint.

If you want to keep the design, spray them with some varnish or paint them with clear nail polish. Let them dry.

And the most important thing, DON'T TOUCH THEM! If you touch them you will leave your fingerprint... Now that I think of it, that could actually be cool.... I'll keep this idea for a future project :p

And voilà! You have plenty of caps ready to use for when inspiration hits!

PS: If you've liked this tutorial, please vote for it on the Rainy Day Contest. Thanks!