These upcycled bottle tops can prove to be a real hit for unusual gift items. We love ours in the garden and I think it looks nice with the plants growing around it.
I do not claim to be the most artistic and have no hidden talents! But even I found this easy to do. Hopefully you will do to, as this is fun with kids as well.
What we did to repurpose these bottle tops
I first of all asked a local pub to us to keep over the bottle tops for a few days. So a few hundred beers later and we had our hoard! Wash them. Then rinse them and wash them again. Wasps will be attracted otherwise.
You will need a decent pair of Pliers to fold the bottle tops over. Again I can’t emphasis enough, just how little skill is required. Just face the pliers to the bottle top, put it to the middle and then fold it over. Once it is half in place I then use the pliers to pinch it tighter. This will give the claws of my crab. 
I then used a piece of old cardboard and drew out what I thought was a crab shape. No need to be too clever here as I clearly am not talented in this area, but you can still see the bottle tops are a crab!
Upcycled used wooden pallets
I spent quite a bit of time deciding on a suitable block of wood for the backing. There are a few leftover scaffolding boards from our shelves project. We even have some leftover railway sleepers but in the end I went for some used wooden pallets. We had had a delivery that left the old pallets, but if you want to buy new ones have a look at associated-pallets.co.uk and they cost around £6.50 each. Obviously you can try local shops as well. Due to the increase in popularity of used wooden pallets in garden furniture projects it can be hard to find ones for free now.
Measuring out
Because I had already got my cardboard version I was able to take some rough measurements. This particular crab measured 35cm by 35cm. So then all I had to do was work out how many widths of the wooden pallets I would need to make it to around 35cm. In this case each width was 9cm therefore I needed 4 widths. I wanted it to be a bit rough and ready with a few longer pieces and just to look a bit shabby chic.
Cut and glue
The wood is easy to saw using a fine handsaw. So once you have measured out and used a set square to mark it all up you are ready to glue it together. I wanted the fixings to be behind the main part so I cut two lengths of baton and secured it to the back with Wood Glue
You can see that I have also used a claw hammer to gently bash down the old rusty screws. You could try and pull them out, but I have just popped them on the reverse. By using the two batons I can ensure that the wooden pallets are held nicely in place, but I can also then use it to hang from a fence. If I wanted this to be a bathroom wall hanging I could use apicture hanging kit.
Final Positioning
I then used the wood glue to gently draw a line of glue around each of the bottle tops. By keeping my original crab next to me and just taking one bottle top at a time I was able to more or less keep the shape. I’m not sure I don’t prefer the original though. But then I would say that as you are always critical of your own work!
What else with beer bottle tops?
I fancy making some funky flowers. Also I could do a table top. I really want to see the ideas you all come up with so please do join our
FaceBook Group or share this post andinclude the version you tried!
Whatever you feel inspired to do, just give it a go as you have nothing to lose!
I am beginning to get swamped with requests for these as Christmas gifts, so with that in mind I have put together an entire page on gifts for gardeners so we don’t have to make hundreds of these each year!
Other upcycled projects
