License Plate & Bottlecap Ornaments

As seen published on Off-The-Deep-End.Net, December 7, 2011: Through the years I have been told that I am very organized and that I have a great attention to detail. Two qualities I have been quite proud to possess. The truth is that if it was not for lists, I would never stand a chance at being organized. But, lately, there seems to be a trend taking place. I lose my lists. I write a reminder to myself on a little scrap of paper only to throw it away. I write a note on a full sheet of paper, only for it to get lost in a stack of mail, school papers, and other stuff.

To help me get back on track, I made myself a nice collection of big and small notebooks to keep my notes organized. I have a special book just for Off The Deep End. And yet, I received notice from my OTDE editor reminding me I have a post on Wednesday. Say what? Where's my note? I know I wrote it down. On a scrap of paper. Maybe in my special OTDE notebook. Where is that pretty little book anyway?

Today's ornament is reprised from an ornament a made a couple years ago for a blog I participated in called Ornament Thursday.

That's me! At age 11 months.

It's always fun to take something made for one purpose and use it for different one. We're going to do that a couple times with this ornament.

To start, let's prep the bottlecap. We're going to use a flatten bottlecap. You may be able to find flatten bottlecaps in your craft store, but more than likely you will find the regular ones. They are easy to flatten and can be done various ways. Some people use their die cutting machines, but I'm going to show you the old school way. This way, if you don't have a craft room full of nifty tools, you still can flatten your bottlecap with things you have around the house.

Please note: the bottlecaps from soda and beer are made of a stronger metal than those sold in craft stores. This make them very difficult to flatten and look nice.

When you flatten them, you take the fluted edges and make them curl back down on itself. This gives you a flatter surface and a pretty edge.

1. 2. 3.

4. 5.

1. Here is a regular bottlecap, a flatten bottlecap, and a flatten bottlecap with the seal removed.

2. To flatten your bottlecap, lay it ridge side down (how it looks on a bottle) on a hard, flat, smooth surface like a sidewalk or cement floor. Place a block of wood on top of it and hammer it.

3. Take a heat tool and heat the seal enough to soften it and remove it with a needle tool. (Be careful, metal will be hot.)

4. If you do not have a heat tool, you can boil some water, place your bottlecap in the sink, pour the water over it, and immediately remove the seal with a needle tool or something similar. This will make the metal hot too, so be careful.

5. Last, use a nail and hammer a hole into the edge.

6. 7.

8. 9.

6. Get a 1" circle punch and print a photo to 1" x 1". You could also use a full size photo with distance images or a piece of clip art.

7. Flip your punch over, and place the photo in it so you can see how the image will look before you punch it.

8. Now you have your flatten bottlecap, a 1" circle punched picture, and extra large round epoxy stickers. Glue the photo into the bottlecap and place the epoxy sticker on top of it.

9. Gather your supplies and arrange them. The license plate is a metal sticker by Karen Foster Designs made for scrapbooking.

10. Take some light weight wire and wire everything together. There's no plan, just have fun wrapping the wire around everything. Just make sure you twist the ends together when you're done. Trim off any excess wire. You may want to tape your ends to the back of the ornament to avoid any scrapes.

How many repurposed items did you find? Do you know what the pretty little sunbursts charms really are?