Paper Creations Magazine is holding a Halloween Bottle Cap challenge for its Facebook Fans, so I thought I would give it a try. It turned out to be much more difficult than I'd imagined.
I have had my husband save his bottle caps in a cup for me, so I had plenty to work with. Thankfully, because it took plenty before I had one that was even presentable. I had watched the video about flattening bottle caps with your Wizard. I tried several times, and all I ended up with was a shredded Embossing mat (the edges of the bottle caps cut all the way through the mat) and wonky smashing (none of them smashed neatly like on the video).
I don't know if this was because I wasn't using blank bottle caps made specifically for crafting (after multiple failed attempts, I did see a comment that I should have pulled out the edges manually first), but I tried multiple times with bottle caps from multiple companies, and always got the same result (some sides smashed inward; other sides smashed outward … a general mess).
I finally decided to work with un-flattened bottle caps for my design. I punched some 1" circles from Martha Stewart Halloween stickers and adhered them to the bottom of the bottle cap. Then I used DG3 Art gel to fill up the bottle cap (here's a video with some tips I should have watched first).
On this one I failed when I adhered the sticker to the bottom of the bottle cap (I didn't let it try long enough) and after filling it, it started to float up in the DG3. When I tried to push it back down, I ended up with lots of bubbles and because it had partially hardened at this point, I couldn't get them to pop. I decided to just go with the bubbles with all of these creepy eye balls.
The second one did a little better, but still not really good enough to submit.
I also tried one using Inksentials Matte Accents, which dried completely cloudy … another learning failure.
However, even when I fall short, I still enjoy the process … back to the drawing board to try again.
I hate when I get those darn bubbles! Cute designs!! I can’t wait to see what else you come up with!
This technique has eluded me also!
I went back and looked at that Spellbinders post about the bottle caps. She says that if you put the bottle cap with the edges toward the master mat, the bottle cap will be embedded in it, so I don’t know how it would not shred the embossing mat if the edges face that!
There is a comment that used bottle caps need to have the edges pulled out with pliers.
oof! ok, see, i like the UN-FLATTENED caps waaaaaaay better for this anyway–i think that just makes them so much more like little FACES! and i really like BOTH of these A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! the first one really kind of *works* with the eyeballs and the bubbles! and the second one is…imo…♥PERFECT♥!!!
(but yeah, i am with you on “learning” and “process”…which would both still have been excellent WITHOUT the shredded embossing mat, tho…sigh…sorry, missus!)