A Bottle Cap Calendar Craft Project

Start the new year off with a calendar craft project that allows you to recycle used bottle caps for fun and organizational purposes. Here are instructions on how to make a bottle cap calendar that saves you money on stationery store products.

Materials Needed to Make a Bottle Cap Calendar:
1 Cereal box
31 Bottle caps
1 12 inch ruler
Scissors
All-purpose school glue
White and black acrylic paint
2 Paintbrushes
1 Roll of white contact paper
1 Permanent marker
Large newspaper sheets

Instructions to Make a Bottle Cap Calendar:

Cut the front or back side of your cereal box to get an even square or rectangle shaped piece of cardboard using scissors. You can also cut out both sides and attach them with glue to make this bottle cap calendar craft sturdier. Cut out two square or rectangle shaped pieces of contact paper that match the size of your cardboard cereal box sheet using scissors. Cover both sides of the cardboard using the contact paper.

Divide one side of the cardboard sheet into six sections by using a permanent marker and ruler to draw five horizontal lines lines. Write "January" in the first section of the cardboard sheet using the permanent marker, leaving room beneath this title to fill in the days of the week later on in your craft project. Divide the sections beneath the "January" month label into 35 squares by drawing six vertical lines that are equally spaced between each other. Write the days of the week at the top of each vertical section, starting with Sunday and continuing until Saturday, using the permanent marker. Each vertical section should be headed by a different day of the week.

Decorate any leftover empty space within the January title section using stickers, miniature photos, drawings, stamped images, craft jewels or other embellishments. Paint the exterior areas of the bottle caps using white acrylic paint and one paint brush. Keep all of the bottle caps and painting supplies on top of newspaper sheets during this process to prevent paint damage to furniture, floors or any other surface. All of your bottle caps should be identical in size to help give the calendar a neat appearance when completed. Caps from soda pop bottles or beer bottles are ideal for this calendar craft project.

Allow the white paint on your bottle caps to dry and then write a different number on each of them using black acrylic paint and one paintbrush until you reach number 31. Allow the black painted numbers on your bottle caps to dry and then glue them inside one square space each on the cardboard sheet. Glue the numbered bottle caps in the order that they appear for the month of January representing the current year. The bottle cap numbered "1" would be glued to the Wednesday space in the first horizontal row on your cardboard sheet if you are making a 2011 calendar.

Allow the bottle caps to dry on your cardboard surface and then sit the finished calendar upright on top of a kitchen counter, living room table or other home furniture, using a flower vase or other heavy decoration for support. Repeat the previous instructions and assemble a materials list for each remaining month in the year.