(I will get pictures up as soon as my laptop stops being LAME!)
As you can tell by the title I am creating something with pop tabs. It has been a long process and I have collected pop tabs for oh I don't know maybe 10 months to a year. I haven't been the only one drinking all the sodas around here thankfully! Kyle's family is big so every time we go over to his Grandparents house we raid the recycle plus his brother saves them up so when we see him he has a whole pile. Then we just add them to the jar that we have going on.
About a month ago I looked at the jar and finally decided that I had enough to start this daunting project.
I decided to use jewelery wire that came from Joann's in their jewelry making section. I grabbed a 20 gauge wire at 8 yards. I ended up buying 3 because they didn't have a bigger role in the gauge I wanted.
When I got home I grabbed a pair of needle nose pliers and cut a bunch of 1-2 inch size wire stripes and started putting them together.
I'd grab one tab and lay the other one on top of it and wrap the wire around it 3 times in the center and then twist off the ends. I repeated that 9 times. I made 14 of these and then I attached them together in three spots, once on top, in the middle, and near the bottom. This made one side of the purse.
To make the other side I did the same pattern but instead of all silver I made a 'N' (for his Aunt Natalka) with the green tabs I had collected. And hooked all those together using the same method as before.
Can I just say my hand and wrist have never hurt so bad in my life. I literally had to put it on ice because it was hurting and swollen. It is such a repetitive process that I would recommend having a bottle of ibuprofen and a tube of icy hot next to you and to do a little at a time. It has taken me about 3 weeks to get these two sides done with just needing to take breaks and having to go back and forth to the store to buy more wire.
When I finished these two sides the wires were all poky and I didn't want them to snag the purse. In order to remedy that I tried flattening them with the pliers and it wasn't working the way I wanted it to. So out comes the hot glue gun to save the day! I put a little blob on each end and let them dry. Next cleaned all the little lines that you always get with hot glue and it worked perfectly! It did exactly what I wanted it to do without ruining my design. The best part you can't see it from the front of the purse!
Now to make the sides. I ended up buying a little clutch/hand held purse thing at the thrift store for $3. I bought some tiny split rings to connect the fronts to the sides that way there is some flexibility and if she ever needs to clean the bag she can just slide it out. The plan is to just slide the bag inside the pop tabs and then attach a chain to the pop tabs so she can throw it over her shoulder if she wants. If she wants to carry it like a clutch all she has to do is unhook the chain..
I finally finished! It took me a while to finish this thing because my hand and wrists were hurting so bad that I just kept procrastinating. And next thing you know I was in CO for over a month working. I was dreading coming back to WA cuz I knew I'd only have 10 days to finish it before we hit the road. Thankfully the hard part was done, I just needed to put the split rings on to connect all the sides. The last step is just to find a chain that I like and cut it to length to make the handle and then it will be 100% completed. However since I no longer have to twist and cut I am considering it done.
This will be the last time you hear from me for the year so Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy crafting Goonies!!
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