DIY Bottle Cap String Art Tutorial

After making the Giant String Art Ampersand I became a bit of an addict for nail hammering. I was scouring pinterest and my brain for my next project idea, toying with making a present for a friend, but not having a strong plan. I found this seashell string art and was inspired... except I don't have a ton of stray seashells anymore... What I do have is a huge hoard of bottle caps that I have been saving since I turned 21. So I thought "why not?" I wanted this to be a totally free project using only materials I had on hand, so I got a little creative.

I needed wood for the base, and looked no further than our leftover wedding decorations. LEGO-Man wanted to keep this board because he liked the way he wrote our names, so it came back to Texas with us after the wedding. We don't need the whole thing so I decided to chop off the top.

When I flipped over the board it was a totally blank slate, ready for a new and exciting life ahead!

Measure once.

Measure twice.

Measure a third time.

We don't have a proper work service so we got creative using the drop off by the pool as a make shift saw table. This is probably incredibly ill-advised... We need to make saw horses... use proper saw safety! or better yet, let your friendly neighborhood hardware store cut your wood for you!

I'm standing at the top of the drop off holding the board with my feet. Lego-man is at the bottom of the drop off with the wood hanging over. He is using a small circular saw.

Bye Bye wedding sign! It was great knowing you! The finished size for the board for this project was 3ft tall and 1.5ft wide

At this point I got out my handy dandy orbital sander and sanded down the blank side.

I went over the board two or three times with 120 grit. Then two or three times with 220 grit. The higher the number on the sandpaper the finer the finish.

Don't forget your super sexy safety goggles my friend!

Lego-man has in the past insulted my staining technique, so now he is required to help on all staining projects. We cut up an old t-shirt as a rag to do the staining.

He balled a strip of t-shirt up and dipped it in the stain.

Then wiped the stain across the board thinly and evenly.

Dip, wipe, dip, wipe.

So pretty.

I let it dry overnight so that I wouldn't leave any fingerprints or marks while I was hammering.

Then I gathered my other materials.

*Hammer

*One inch nails (I bought white for the ampersand and used the leftovers)

*Paint scraper for straightening crooked nails

*Yellow and White string

*a cheap pen with the ink part, and back taken out.

*Clear tape

*Painters tape

*Tons of bottle caps

*Template (link to PDF)

*Picture hanging kit

Look at this beautiful bottle cap collection!

I taped the pieces of the template together with the clear tape and centered it to the board. The top of the paper should be the top of the board.

Then I started nailing from left to right. Which was so dumb. It meant that with each new nail I had to fight the old nails to hold it. Don't be like me. If you are right handed, work from right to left. if you are left handed do the opposite.

nails nails nails

I used the claw of the hammer as my spacer. I put the claw next to the last driven nail, and used the next nail to lightly score the paper where one side if the claw ended.

Tiny little score mark.

Then I placed the next nail right on the black outline, on top of the score mark, and tapped it in with the hammer. Remember not to be like me and work the other way. You can see my holding hand all awkward while it fights the existing nails... silly silly me.

Once the nail is tapped in drive it to your required depth. I used the width of my thumb as my height reference.

*Blooper Reel* At one point I went to drive the nail before it was properly tapped in. It went flying into the pool. You can't leave a nail in a swimming pool so I had to go change and jump in the pool on a search and rescue mission. Such a hardship on such a hot day. I used the snorkel gear to find the nail.. it was of course in the deep end.

After a few hours and one swim break all of the nails were driven, there are two lines drawn across the neck of the bottle, but I only put nails in the top line.

You simply rip off all of the paper and you get this beautiful outline!

I filled in the bottom part with bottle caps. I did not glue or secure them in anyway, but I did make sure they were in space packed tightly.

I left the neck of the bottle empty, just as it is in a real beer.

I grabbed my emptied pen

I threaded a string through the back of the pen with the loose end coming out the front.

Voila.

I put a slip knot on the end of the string.

And tightened it around the nail where I wanted to start.

With my dominant hand I hold the pen and draw the string from one nail to the next. With my non-dominant hand I hold the tail of the string with tension from the ball.

When I get to the nail I want to wrap I made sure to go one complete turn around it so that it is more secure.

For the area with the bottle caps I wrapped it with the board still laying flat, and made sure the string was run tightly across the top of the caps.

When the strings were all done I cut the end and put a slip know on it. I slipped the end of the knot on an ending nail and trimmed the excess string.