Life is more fun with crafts!

I have been inspired for a while by all the fun bottle cap creations on Pinterest. I had an idea to take my boring patio table and add some flare. Ryan likes an evening beer or two, so we had quite a few bottle caps. I organized what I had by color. I had black, red, blue, and silver. It seemed liked a lot, but I didn't have enough to cover the table.  I bought an additional 1500 from an Etsy shop. That should do the trick!   

 My new bottle caps arrived and it was time to start! Once I added the new caps the design phase began. I laid the caps out and continued to play. I decided on a wheel meets sunburst design. I had to make some changes as I went because of cap colors. (That is why the end product is slightly different.) I would need some more red, silver, and gold to finish. Time to drink up, Ryan. 😃 We left for our Colorado trip at this point, so he had time. 


 All the bottle caps were in position, time to get gluing. I bought tile adhesive from the local home improvement store. I vastly underestimated how much I would need. I bought my first quart thinking that I would have some left over. I did not, that quart got a quarter of the bottle caps attached. I ended up buying two more gallons to get the job done. I realized about this time that I must have lost my mind a little bit to pursue this project in the summer. I went outside in hour bursts until I couldn't take the heat/sweat.  

 All the caps were glued down. Now came the most intimidating part, the grout. I took a tiling class eight years ago, but had never used what I learned. I again headed to the home improvement store. I decided on a bag of gray sanded grout that just needed water to mix. 

 I mixed the grout and began spreading it on the table. I had the thought that I may be messing up hours of hot outside work. What would I do if this doesn't work? Luckily, I wasn't going to have to figure that out because it was working. I scraped off the excess as I applied the grout. I let it dry for about ten minutes and took a wet sponge to clean the bottle caps. Some got scratched by the sand, but I liked how it looked. I sprayed two coats of clear gloss to the top and I was finished!