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Bottle cap art is a perfect activity to get kids doing some hands-on creative work. And, we love crafts at our house! Especially, because I can almost always use recycled or repurposed materials to do them.
Homeschooling costs can add up and spending extra money on craft supplies can feel so frustrating. You can read more about our STEM materials and how we do STEM in our homeschool in Tinker Trays, STEM Boxes, and Purposeful Destruction.
If you’ve been avoiding crafts or projects and doing less of it because you don’t want to spend the money on materials then try this or my Tin Can Windchime Project.
This bottle cap art project is a super frugal craft and probably won’t cost you a thing, except maybe some storage space. It’s also super simple so there is a lot to love about it.
Bottle Cap Art
Materials:
What you need:
Plastic Milk Jug Lids
Plastic soda and water bottle caps
Metal bottle caps (these can be sharp, so only let older children use these for crafts)
Or, any other jar lids you’ve recycled. We use milk jug lids and plastic soda and water bottle lids mostly because we often have a lot of those. But, you can also use different sized lids, like the ones on mayonnaise and jelly jars. This just adds to the interesting ways kids are able to put the caps together to make art.
Bottle Cap Projects
Let your kids create designs, pictures, and patterns with their recycled caps. And, after they’ve played with the caps on their own try giving your kids some parameters or topics to explore with their art.
Recently, we’ve had an abundance of green caps from a pack of water bottles we bought. So, I used the bottle caps as a supplement for my daughter’s artwork. I made a few green “stems” with the bottle caps and suggested she paint some flowers with her watercolors to go with them. After painting, she reworked the green caps to make her own stem.
She’s been really interested in frogs lately because we’ve been finding a lot of them around our campsite. So, I’m thinking of making some lily pads with her using the green caps again. I’m thinking it might inspire her to paint or draw a pond and its wildlife.
I love the hands-on aspect of mixing the painting with the bottle cap manipulation. It feels more interactive and gets kids thinking outside the box when creating art.
A Reusable Art Supply
If you want to keep their creations you could glue down the lids to paper or canvas to save the art. But, I’ve found the best part about this idea is that you can let them return to it over and over again. After they finish creating just scoop the caps into a freezer bag. Pick-up is done and you have materials for a quick activity another day.
This, in particular, is a great way to use these caps as centers for preschoolers too. Just make sure to watch toddlers or children who still put things in their mouths as they could be a choking hazard.
It’s also a non-messy activity to use with your younger children while homeschooling your older ones. Your preschooler can get them out and pick them up all on their own. And, there’s no mess requiring a broom, like with playdough.
https://www.pinterest.com/poolnoodlespixiedust/art/
Let me know what things you create with your bottle cap art projects in the comments!
Heidi
