Monday, December 26, 2011

Bottle Cap Creation

How was your Christmas?  I am assuming that since you are back in blogland that you survived! We had a wonderful weekend full of friends, family, food and fun.  And the gifts weren't to shabby either.  My wonderful husband scored big with these great napkins from Anthropologie...


and the gift I have been asking for all year long, the wonderful floor cleaning steaming magical machine known as The Shark.  I was in love at first site (please excuse the still in my PJs haven't brushed my hair scary picture of me)...


I used it right away and it is great.  My hardwood floors have never looked better.  And my favorite part, it only needs water.  No toxic chemicals that my daughter later crawls around on picking up dropped food.  (Come on, you know it happens.)  It rocks!

What else rocks is the kick a&* book I got from my brother and sister-in-law...


Reader's Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual.  Need to repair drywall?  It is in there.  Need to install a ceiling light fixture?  It is in there.  Need to extract a stubborn screw?  Yup, you guessed it.  It is in there!  Totally awesome!

Now, I did do a little gift giving myself.  I gave both my sisters-in-law great maps from Jenna Sue Maps - our Etsy Shop of the Month.  My mom, a cozy throw from Pottery Barn.  And of course my daughter made out like a bandit.  But the one gift I did DIY was this gift for my husband...


It is Beer Bottle Cap Art!  I spent a few weeks hunting down and purchasing some of his favorite beer caps on eBay.  My best find was four Tiger Beer bottle caps shipped all the way from Malaysia! 


Then I got to work assembling them into art.  I started with a $1 recycled cabinet door from the ReStore.  Sanded it a bit and patched the hardware holes.  Then I painted it black.  I had read online that all I needed to do to attach the caps was to hot glue them on but I was worried this plan would leave globs of glue in between each cap...yuck  So what's a girl to do other than roam the isles of Michael's until you come up with a solution.  (Wandering aimlessly is where much of my inspiration comes from.)


Eventually I found these alphabet beads.  They were each just a bit taller than the bottle cap so I glued one to the underside of each cap and then glued the bead to the cabinet.  And it worked great!  I love it when a plan comes together and when a gift is a success :)  


Did you DIY any gifts?  Share them with us on the Mission Decoreate Facebook Page!