10 Fun Craft Ideas to Do with Plastic Bottle Caps : Keep the Kids Busy for Hours and Do Good for the Green Earth!

I'm on my environmental kick again, this time I have a huge problem with the fact that most of local recycling facilities can't recycle bottle caps. Look at these pictures, where the good peeps of Surfrider.org collected 4000 bottle caps in under 3 hours in New Jersey. So much for thinking a little cap doesn't matter.

If you were like me, you probably just threw them into the recycling bin and decided to let someone else figure it out. That was before I wised up. In Japan, they melt 'em down and make them into other things, so while we are waiting for the US to catch up, check out these cool links to make fun projects. NOTE: Aveda had announced they were recycling caps. Here is more info.

One artist by the name of Michelle Stitzlein has NOT been waiting around. She's been creating wonderful plastic bottle cap items for a long time. Her bottle cap art series, which ranges from these LOLLIPOP FLOWERS to funky garden art like butterflies made out of plastic caps. Her work has been featured all over the place, and she even has a book out called "Bottlecap Little Bottlecap" which has some cute kiddie projects. Find out more on her website.

Let's say you don't have that kind of talent and want to start small, well brace yourselves MOTHERS and BABYSITTERS what a great way to keep the kids busy! FATHERS what a great thing to do with your kids-- collect the caps as a spending quality time together project! ART AND SCHOOL TEACHERS put some of this into your curriculum!

EASY/BEGINNER:

1) Magnets from bottle caps. Use your imagination and visit this link from allfreecrafts.com which shows your kids how to make adorable magnets. Just think, your kids can save caps by color, than implement these into cool holiday or gift giving crafts. Make red hearts for Valentine's day, shamrocks for St. Patty's day, Yellow bunnies for Easter and Green trees for Christmas!

2) My absolute favorite item is this bottle cap curtain listed in the August 2008 archives from Kiddley.com.

3) How about some cool wall art, at least that's what they are doing at RecycleThis in the UK. Check this funky thing out.

INTERMEDIATE:

4) Try these lovely pincushions by Jen Segret, at Craftstylish.com. They transform into great gift ideas.

5) Make Plastic Bottle Cap pendants filled with cool little trinkets. Items such as this buttercup necklace or this screwed necklace are all the rage on Etsy, with pendants bringing in a cool $7-$15 per pop. To make pendants such as this, all you will need is a few plastic bottle Caps, jump rings to mount to the cap and turn it into a pendant, a toothpick, a tiny sharp pick or dremmel tool with tiny bit, and little oddities for the inside of the cap, and a Do-it-Yourself Resin Kit from the craft store. By poking holes with your tiny pick or dremmel in the top of the cap you can affix your jump ring to the top of the cap. (The resin when poured inside will further seal in the jump ring to the inside of the cap.) Make sure to fill the cap with unique items and follow the directions on the resin. Resin can be difficult to work with and make sure to poke out the air bubbles with the toothpick. Once dry, your pendant should be done. If you don't like poking holes in the bottle cap, you can choose to optionally superglue your jump ring to the back when complete.

6) Check out these super cool lampshades you can make with this recipe on Keetsa. I have also seen lights being made such as this funky disco ball that was from DivingMeet blogspot. The only concern about this is finding the right glue to adhere the bottle caps to the plastic globe (an old hanging light found at the thift store or flea market.) It must be a non flammable glue that is made to withstand high heat.

7) Artist Kitty G shares how to make a great bottle cap flower which you can do with metal and plastic, or use the same idea for an all plastic flower. .

HARD/ADVANCED:

8) A bottle cap bag or purse or

9) A cool funky stool, both diagrams available for free at eep! Design. They are written in GREEK however the pictures are easy enough to follow!

10) A bottle cap tree adorns the backyard of Kitty G, something that was created for the Burning Man project.....either way, wouldn't this be fun to get the children started on early.............the more they grow the higher the caps go.......

Whatever you do, have fun creating craft projects, and doing your part to keep caps out of the landfill. Keep it green and keep it real.