Beer Caps and Bottle Tops—A Sunday Favorite

I have a confession to make.  I have an ulterior motive in what I am reposting for this week’s Sunday Favorites, hosted by Chari at Happy to Design.

It is one of my favorite posts, and got 30 legitimate comments when I first ran it on March 3, 2009.  But it is also the post that is most often hit on by spammers promoting everything from Viagra to male enhancement drugs.

A few months ago, I started moderating my blog so that I could reject their nastiness before it got posted.  But I’m so afraid I’ll accidentally hit “publish” instead of “reject” that I’m trying a different approach.  By republishing it here, under a new title, and deleting the original (which I’ve never done before), I can hopefully preserve the post and foil the spammers.

Besides, any dad would love one of these for Father’s Day!

Several people have asked me to "show and tell" about my magnetic memo board, so today seemed like a good day. First, the idea idea was not original, but the best ideas are often the ones you "borrow."

 

I was with some friends at an inspiration home in town, sort of like a decorator showhouse but on a smaller scale. In the kitchen over the desk was this wonderful magnetic memo board that incorporated old bottle caps on the frame. Almost everything in the house was for sale, but when we looked at the price of $350 for the memo board, we decided we could make one ourselves. All we had to do was find a suitable frame, obtain some old bottle caps and purchase galvanized metal.

 

Frames for our first efforts came from Olde Time Pottery, a warehouse type store that sells everything from dishes and glassware to artificial flowers and framed "art." We didn't need the art, but we did need the frames, and finding the right kind of frame is not as easy as you might think. You need a frame that has a flat place on it that is wide enough for the bottle caps to fit.

 

EBay proved to be a great source for bottle caps. You can buy both beer and soft drink caps in all sorts of quantities, but I don't mix beer and soft drink caps on my boards, since they are not exactly the same size. I also like for each cap on the board to be different, so when I'm making a purchase on eBay, I study the picture carefully to make sure the lot contains a good variety of caps. When I'm doing a frame with soft drink caps, I always like to incorporate a Grapette cap if I have one, since Grapette was invented in my hometown.

 

The galvanized metal can be purchased from Home Depot in rolls large enough for several memo boards. Fortunately Glenda's husband is very handy with tools, so he always gets the job of removing the glass from the frames and cutting and installing the metal. Then he usually puts the glass back in the frame behind the metal to give it some support.

 

Since the backs of the bottle caps are hollow, we decided that we would need to glue something into the back of each cap before gluing it to the frame. We found the perfect thing when we discovered packages of small wooden hearts at Michael's. The heart shape wasn't important, but the size was just right. It's important to imbed the heart in plenty of hot glue (what did we use before glue guns) so that it doesn't turn loose from the bottle cap. Once that's done, you then glue the caps to the frame.

 

You can use any kind of magnet, but I always like to make magnets out of bottle caps by gluing a small round magnet into the back. You can also purchase these at Michael's or any craft store. Michael's also sells a frame that looks like old weathered wood. It's perfect for the memo boards as you can see on this one that I made for my sister-in-law Susie.