ICC#28-Recycled Bottle Cap Flower Tutorial

This week's Iron Craft Challenge was to create something using materials that would normally be thrown away.  I have been collecting bottle caps for years with the thought that someday they would become a project.  This was the day.  I created a flower out of bottle caps and turned it into a decorative garden stake.  Here is the finished product.

Now, here's a step-by-step tutorial.  First I collected my materials.  I used bottle caps (I used 20 in mine), a tin can lid, a chopstick, and glue (I started with super glue but switched to epoxy b/c some weren't holding).

From there, I started bending my bottle caps into the shape of flower petals.  The basic idea was inspired by a previous Iron Craft project where I had created a felt flower.  I used my pliers and just started bending until I got the shape I wanted. 

For me, the easiest way to do it was to grab the rim of the bottle cap and pull it down to flatten it.  Then I would bend in the two sides.  Finally, I would bend down the top.  My first few petals looked like blobs of metal so it takes a little trial-and-error.

As I went, I laid my petals out on the tin can lid to determine how many I would need.  I did two layers of petals, but you can switch it up and do more if you like.

Next I glued on the petals.  I did the entire outside row first and then switched to the second layer.  Like I mentioned above, I tried using super glue but found that some of my petals weren't holding so I switched to epoxy.

Finally, I added one more bottle cap in the center.  Now you have a finished flower!

From there, I attached a chopstick by gluing it onto the can lid in between two of the petals.  This allowed me to turn it into a garden stake.  But there are lots of other possibilities.  You could paint it, add leaves (maybe cut from soda cans?), turn it into a pin, etc. 

Want to see more Iron Craft pieces?  Check out the flickr group here.  Want to join in the fun?  Check out the blog here.