I like using trays for various tasks around the house and was on the look out for one to keep my coffee station area nice and tidy. Enter Hobby Lobby. HL is known for it’s deep discounts and that is where I found the most hideous pink glittered tray I have ever seen. (Vase is from Goodwill, it got painted too….) It was under three dollars and I could only hope that primer would cover up that glitter-gone-wrong!
Thankfully it did! I primed and painted it glossy white
Don’t ask me how I thought of using bottlecaps in the bottom of it…I really don’t know, I just wanted something fun and funky. I spray painted a whole bunch of them in my three favorite summertime colors, Blue Ocean Breeze, Ivy Leaf and Pumpkin Orange, and some white, all from Krylon. It actually took some time to collect this many caps, I wanted to do this earlier in the summer, it just took a while!
Just a word of caution if decide to try this project, make sure the handles are high enough, giving you plenty of room to contain the fluid and whatever you are submerging. At least half inch clearance.
I started laying the caps in and played around with the pattern until I was happy. The staggered pattern really worked with not too much wasted space (it wasn’t a perfect fit).
Next, I used what is called acrylic water to pour over the caps. Now this 2 part epoxy is sold at HL and Michael’s, but I found it the cheapest at Walmart, in their Floral Dept. I followed the directions, mixing the compounds and poured it on. It’s self-leveling, which is great! The tough part was waiting the 48 hours, because it cannot be disturbed at all, and my house is full of disturbances!!! 
Luckily, the acrylic hardened without any incidents, and was ready for use!
It turned out really cute and retro funky, just what I wanted!! It will keep my coffee messes contained!
I bet a lot of different things could be “captured” under the acrylic! Pictures or buttons, anything!
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I love this project- the colors, are fantastic!!! To see more awesome ideas like this, please visit Sweet Something Designs
About Stephanie
Wow! this is a transformation. I would never have thought of using bottle caps in this way. I love the colours you chose.
Wow! I love it! Fantastic! I can't wait to use some of that acrylic.
http://www.joybeadworks.blogspot.com
that is amazing…I love the pop of color!
This is great. I will have to keep my eye out for a tray so I can try it myself!
Man I love this!
I love this idea. I never would have thought of painting the bottle caps. I have a cup of them and this may be what I will do with them.
What a great idea! It turned out beautiful!
omg!…this is so freaking cool!…and i'm loving the color combo!…
Okay, that is totally awesome! Great idea- never heard of the acrylic stuff- good to know about. My first thought was, "How do you clean the mess between the caps?" Stinkin' clever! Thanks for posting.
Love this project!! The colors you chose are perfect!! I totally want to do this now. We could use a tray on our coffee table for our million remotes!
This is very cute!
Now that is creativity at its best! What a beautiful tray it is now! Just love it!
Sharon
SO COOL! i absolutely love it! you are very smart!
meagan
I might riff on this idea some time!! I love it!!
That is really cool. I fully intend to steal this idea soon!
Such a cute project! I love the colors you used on your bottle caps! I am going to link to this from my blog for "someday projects"
Love how this all turned out. I love the colors and I love that you are able to recycle at the same time. Perfect
~Makalani
http://www.MakazHome.com
Very cute idea!
I just wanted to stop by and let you know that I will be linked to this post tomorrow from the new Home & Garden channel at Craft Gossip.
My hope is to share many of the fabulous projects I see everyday with the vast CG audience. I hope you will not only stop by and subscribe to CG, but will tell your friends about the new category! Hope you see some traffic from it!
Your feature will appear in the main Craft Gossip RSS feed, on the main home page. While it's not live yet (scheduled for tomorrow) and can be found directly here
http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/bottle-cap-tray/
If you would like a "featured by" button, you can grab one here!
http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/grab-a-craft-gossip-button/
How fun and funky and inventive!
What a really unique and creative idea. I'm impressed! The colors of the bottle caps are perfect!
How fun! I think I might be doing something like that in the future…super cute!
What a great idea! I just found a bunch of buttons at a thrift store, but wasn't sure what to do with them. Now I know
So glad I found your blog!
I can't wait to try this idea!! I have never heard of acrylic water before. I wonder if paper/pictures would hold up well??
Another cute idea. love it.
This is really cute! I may try something similar.
I’ve been waiting a long time to try this! I finally had the bottle caps and paint to do it! So I poured the acrylic water in and it made some of the bottle caps “float” up a little. I tried to carefully push them back down, but overnight some snuck up again. Did this happen to yours?
Sorry you are having problems with this- I have never done this project, so I don’t have any advice. Try contacting Sweet Something Designs directly and see if she can offer any help. Good luck!
Sorry Steph, I didn’t realize it was a guest post. I’ll check out her site. Thanks so much!
LOVE this tray!! This so inspires me to do more! I have an outdoor cart/bar that I think I will try to do this with now! Thanks for the great tutorial!!!
Perfect! I have been “collecting” caps for some time (they MUST be good for something). I think this would work for keeping the caps “as is” with the brewery tag. Sooo many micros now with cool caps. Thank you for sharing. Does the acrylic water get really hard, or kinda soft/waxy? Trying to think of other uses for it…
Your project’s been Candoodled! I love it so I’ve shared it:
http://candoodles.blogspot.com/2012/05/repurpose-bottle-cap-decorating.html
how do you keep the caps from floating when you pour the epoxy over them/ please respond today i plan on doing this project soon, great idea
I heard of this before but never thought of painting the caps. You have given me so many ideas! Love it!
i did a similar project recently, and used expensive epoxy from HomeDepot. Appartmently I didn’t stir (mix) the 2 components long enough and it never cured or set up properly. So disappointed. It looks awesome but it’s tacky/sticky to touch. Anyone have suggestions as to how to fix this?
Can this be done with plastic water bottle caps?