Holiday Project #1: Bottlecaps

So I know we have not even hit Halloween yet, but I got a little excited and started playing with my holiday stuff. When I was in Edmonton a few weeks back I got to hang out with Caroline - one of the master creatives behind Maya Road. One of her classes used their Mega Bottlecaps. She had taken a bunch of elements, poured in some Glossy Accents, and created these very cool bottlecap embellishments. I saw them and immediately thought of holiday stuff.

Now these are not small bottle caps. They are about 2 inches across. And this is such a simple project! Here's what I did:

1. Collect up all your holiday stuff and get it into one spot (this is obviously a really general step one...but it will help you be able to create stuff over the next couple months to get ready for the holidays).

2. Pick out some small embellishments that you want to showcase in your bottlecaps.

3. Use a circle punch to cut some holiday patterned paper. I used the new Fiskars circle punch - loving this tool.

4. Layer elements inside each bottlecap.

5. Squeeze Glossy Accents (a clear dimensional medium that will dry hard) into the bottlecap - enough to cover your layered elements.

6. Let it dry. I let mine sit overnight (away from interested little hands). It looks cloudy when you first squeeze all the liquid in there but it dries clear. Mine ended up with a bunch of bubbles - it probably had to do with how I was squeezing but I decided it was cool like that.

7. Attach a magnet to the back. I used the new magnets from Basic Grey. Stick the magnets on your fridge and celebrate the season.

Here are a few places you can find the Mega Bottlecaps online:

Stamp Attic

Scrapologie

Ally Scraps

Lifetime Moments

Have fun. This is another project that could totally be repeated for other holidays/events/celebrations, etc.

And if you are looking for a way to jot down all your cool ideas for the holidays I created a holiday 2006 journal that you can find in my cafe press shop. Always nice to have a blank book on hand. I am hoping to do some sort of Christmas journal again this year...I loved Shimelle's class last year even though I wasn't able to finish mine. Shimelle are you doing one again this year?

Also, look for next week's newsletter to answer additional questions I received today regarding photos/photo philosophy/etc.. If you have a question send me an email (with NEWSLETTER: PHOTOS in the subject line) and I will try to address it next week.