Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets

Making these bottle-cap magnets turned out to be one of the most fun and rewarding projects that my daughter and I have done together — right up there with our felt salad, toddler art napkins, and favorite book character magnets that we use every day!

Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets Tutorial

The idea for making glittered bottle-cap magnets came from Anna Getty’s book, I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas: Gifts, Decorations, and Recipes that Use Less and Mean More. By adding our daughter’s photo to the magnets, we’ve made a great holiday present for family. (Boy did I blow the surprise by posting this!)

Note: this project involves several layers of paint and glue, so you’ll need to allow several days to complete in order for each layer to fully dry between steps.

We started by gathering twist-off bottle caps. Since we rarely drink anything but water, milk or coconut water it took us several months to gather this meager collection of seven twist-off bottle tops:

Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets Tutorial

We painted the bottle caps with white, blue and silver paint and let them fully dry:

Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets Tutorial

After selecting favorite photos of our daughter, we used Photoshop to make photos with a 1 inch diameter circle around her face:

Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets Tutorial
Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets Tutorial

We printed the photos and cut them out to fit in the bottle caps:

Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets Tutorial
Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets Tutorial

Then we mod podged the circular photos to the inside of bottle caps. After they dried, we sealed the photos by painting another layer of mod podge on top:

Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets Tutorial

We put glue around the inside lip of the caps (just barely touching the photos inside) and sprinkled silver glitter over the top:

Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets Tutorial

After the glue dried, we shook off the extra glitter and painted one final coat of mod podge to seal the glitter on:

Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets Tutorial

We cut small magnets (from magnetic strips) and adhered them to the back of the bottle caps:

Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets Tutorial
Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets Tutorial

Ready to use! (Or send off to the relatives.)

Picture Bottle-Cap Magnets Tutorial

I’m not gonna lie. We did save two for ourselves. They were entirely too cute to give away.

Now to save up bottle-caps so we can make some more…

Updated 1/13: Click here for more tips and helpful ideas in making these magnets!

Pinned: Inspired Wreath Crafts

I love these outside-of-the-box, do-it-yourself wreath ideas:


Featured above:
1. DIY Paper Bag Wreath
2. DIY Paper Star Wreath
3. Mini Wreath Holiday Cards
4. Pine Cone Wreath
5. Simple Rosemary Wreath

View these and many more winter holiday inspired pins on my winter Pinterest board.

(images obtained via Pinterest)

DIY Felt Tree Ornaments

I spotted these adorable felt tree ornaments and immediately set about sewing our own.

DIY Felt Tree Ornaments

First we drew and cut out a tree template on thick paper:

DIY Felt Tree Ornaments

We then pinned the tree template to two layers of felt and cut around the template:

DIY Felt Tree Ornaments

We embroidered a design along one side of one of the felt trees:

DIY Felt Tree Ornaments

We pinned the two trees together and whip stitched them together, sewing along the outline of the tree, stuffing it up as we made our way around:

DIY Felt Tree Ornaments

After sewing up the tree ornament, we made a loop at the top before tying off the embroidery thread:

DIY Felt Tree Ornaments

Beautiful!

DIY Felt Tree Ornaments

Our simple, stylish felt tree ornaments feel more special to our family because we made them ourselves.

Don’t have time to sew this ornament? Buy them online at West Elm.

Pinned: Hanukkah Craft Inspiration

Pinterest continues to be an endless source of inspiration. Here are some recent Hanukkah crafts that I’m excited to try with our daughter (while listening to our favorite Hanukkah album, Songs In The Key Of Hanukkah):

Featured above:
1. Hanukkah countdown calendar made of felt with appliqué and embroidered details (for sale at Land of Nod).
2. Hanukkah stained glass windows craft with free templates to download.
3. Hanukkah collage cards made out of magazine scraps.
4. Wooden play menorah made out of wooden spools and colored pencils.
5. Felt Hanukkah garland of dreidels and stars of David (for sale on Etsy).

Didn’t see anything that strikes your fancy? Check out this fantastic slideshow of 25 DIY Menorah and Hannukah Crafts.

Can you believe Hanukkah is less than three weeks away?!

View many more winter holiday inspired pins on my winter Pinterest board.

Check out some of our other popular Hanukkah posts:
Hanukkah Crafts and Activities
Hanukkah and Christmas Projects from Martha Stewart’s Handmade Holiday Crafts Book

(images obtained via Pinterest)

Gratitude Leaf Rubbings Garland

Remember our leaf rubbings project from last week? We used the leaves to make a Thanksgiving Gratitude Garland!

Gratitude Leaf Rubbings Garland for Thanksgiving

On the back of each leaf rubbing we wrote things we feel grateful for this holiday season: sunny days, feeling healthy, good friends, puddle jumping, cozy cuddles, ice cream, being an “early bird” each morning with Daddy (it turned out I’m not the only one who’s thankful for that!), wildlife sightings from our porch, tasty food straight from our garden…

Gratitude Leaf Rubbings Garland for Thanksgiving

We then strung and hung the paper leaves in our front window.

Gratitude Leaf Rubbings Garland for Thanksgiving

A simple autumn craft for the whole family and a graceful way to share a “gratitude” this holiday season.

Gratitude Leaf Rubbings Garland for Thanksgiving

We have so much to feel thankful for!