How to Make Bottle Caps for Hair Bows

Bottle cap hair bows are very special because they can be personalized to match any character
your daughter adores, character outfit, or even made with real personalization - your daughters
name or initials.

Bottle Caps are pretty easy to make yourself, and your hair bow project can be very versatile
when doing it that way. Or... you can buy bottle caps. Some sites on this page will lead you to
some really neat bottle cap ideas and/or places to purchase bottle caps.

See below to learn how to make your own and ideas for what kinds of bottle caps to make:

When I first started making hair bows, I searched everywhere for precious bottle caps I could adorn
the bows with, with no luck. I couldn't find anything commercially produced, and began to get very
frustrated. This is when I began researching products and get ideas on how to make my own.

Be creative!! If you are making bottle caps to attach to hair bows, you will need to consider how you
plan to attach it to the hair bow.

2 Simple tricks will allow you to do this:
Either - buy mounting tabs at your local craft store (in the scrapbooking section). These mounting
tabs will stick to the back of the cap very securely, and you can simply sew through the back of the
tab and through the hair bow for a more secure hold. (Some people just hot-glue the caps on, but
they fall off this way 90 percent of the time.) One alternative to sewing may be to hot-glue to cap on
with the mounting tab in place first. I've never tried it this way, but it might be effective.

The other trick is to place the bottle cap face up on a flat surface and gently hammer two small nail
holes in the center of the cap. This will allow for you to sew the cap directly onto the hair bow. The
only problem I have found with this method is that sometimes the thread that goes through the holes
at the top of the cap, causes a small crease in the picture/sticker you put on your cap. Once you
work w/ it a little you can figure out how to make it just right.

Now that you've decided how you are going to mount your bottle caps, you can pick out your favorite
design, character, or other image that you would like to place on them. An example of one of my
bottle cap bows is pictured below. It has a Dora the Explorer bottle cap on top of it. I found some
really cute Dora the Explorer pictures at my local hobby store, and decided I wanted to make bows
to match. I purchased the following items so that I could accomplish this:

Xylon Sticker Maker (approx. 8 bucks)
A 1" Circle Punch (found in any stores scrapbooking section)
Stickers of choice
Making Memories 1" circular page pebbles (perfect finishing touch, but optional)

Important note: Make sure the stickers you purchase have at least a 1" diameter within the sticker.

If you buy actual stickers that you find in a store, take the stickers, do not peel the backs, and center
your 1" circle punch over the sticker. Punch the sticker into a 1" circle. Now it is ready to place on
your already prepared bottle cap (only place the sticker on the face of your cap once you've sewn it
on to the bow, if you are doing the hammer/nail method).

If you find cute images you would like to use but they are not stickers, there is no need to worry. You
can still make it work. Punch out the image w/ your 1" circle punch. Run the image through you
sticker maker by following directions on the product, and then peel the back and attach.

The finishing touch is adding a page pebble to the top of your bottle cap. This gives your bottle cap
sticker/image a glossy protected finish. It is optional, because some stickers/images are already
covered with some type of protectant/gloss.

Ideas for Your Bottle Caps:

Purchase Disney Bottle Caps by EK Success with :
Tinkerbell
Winnie the Pooh Characters
The Disney Princesses
Mickey and Friends

Or Make Character Caps out of :
Birthday Party Stickers or Images you find from anywhere (as long as the image is on paper that will
punch out with your 1" circle punch, it will work!!

For Instructions on how to make this hair bow, click here:

See below for tips on Personalizing your caps:

PERSONALIZED CAPS:

The easiest thing to do for bottle caps is to open up Microsoft Word, choose a pretty font like
Calligraphy, or Lucinda and type your daughter's name or initials in a space that doesn't extend one
inch in diameter. Be creative and type "Princess Sarah," or whatever you like!! Once you printout
your names, punch them out, run them through your sticker maker, and then place them on your
caps. This is, in my opinion, the best place to use the page pebbles because the plain paper and ink
from your printer will be easily damaged if it comes in contact with humidity, rain, etc...

BowBusiness.com
Bottle Cap Hair Bows