A couple of years ago, I volunteered to do the welcome bags for a convention, and decided to make little souveniers to put in each bag. I took a bottlecap, printed out a little logo for the convention, glued that on, decorated around the edges, poured clear resin on top to seal it and make it nice and shiny:
I hot-glued a magnet on the back and put it in a little mesh packet with pretty ribbon, and everybody loved them!
I’ve made these pretty often with different designs – the other day, I found Hello Kitty scrapbook paper at one of the craft shops, and decided to make some with those. I’ve also got Elvis, Ernie from Sesame Street, and others on my refrigerator!
All it takes is paper (either scrapbook paper with a pretty design, or a magazine cutout, or something you design and print…), bottlecaps, a hole-punch (I use 1/2″ diameter because that gives plenty of room for the decoration around the edges), Sobo glue (or any other good glue that dries clear), glitter and other little decorations like tiny beads and sequins, EnviroTex Lite, a disposable cup and stirrer for the EnviroTex Lite, and hot glue & magnets or thumbtacks.
I cut out the paper, then take the Sobo glue and glue the circles to the bottom of the underside of the bottlecap and let that dry overnight:
The next day, I got out all my glitter and tiny beads and sequins, I draw a circle around the inside of each of the caps with my glitter glue, then I push in little tiny sequins or beads or just whatever! I love the little pink hearts on these Hello Kitty ones!
I let the glue glitter dry (usually overnight again), then I take a disposable cup and fork and mix together the EnviroTex Lite. It’s a half-and-half solution between the hardener and the resin that come in the box:
I just pour the Envirotex over the design on the bottlecap (not all the way to the top, but just enough to cover the glitter and everything). When you pour the resin in the bottlecap, you’ll be able to see little tiny air bubbles. The way to make those pop is just to blow on them – hard! It works perfectly.
After about three-four days, they’re dry (Envirotex says they’ll try in a couple of days but I guess because of the high humidity here, I’ve never had them dry in less than three or four, sometimes five days)! I just hot-glue a magnet or a thumbtack to the back, and they’re ready!
