Wind Chimes

Summer is fast coming to an end, and I wanted to make something that would spread some of the summer cheer into the rainy days of Fall. We made a wind chime!

For this craft you will need:

• 1 clay pot
• Clear string or fishing line (make sure it can hold the weight of the pot)
• Metal Bottle Caps
• Buttons (small ones to fit on top of the buttons, and 1 large one. The large button needs to be larger than the drainage hole in the pot.)
• Bells
• Hot glue, glue gun
• Paint (make sure it is for outside use if you are hanging your wind chime outside)

Directions:

1. Paint pot and bottle caps (optional) and let dry.
2. Cut 18" pieces of fishing line.
3. At the end of each string, tie a bell. (If your string is the kind that loves to untie itself like mine turned out to be, place a dot of hot glue over the knot to keep it in place.)
4. Place a dot of hot glue on the top of a bottle cap, place string on top, and then place a button.

5. Make about 5-6 caps on each line.
6. Thread all the strings through the large button and tie into a knot.

7. Push strings through drainage hole in pot and tie another knot at the top (to hang the wind chime).
8. To make sure the strings don't all hang in the middle, hot glue the string to the inside of the pot. Make sure to space evenly around the pot.

Laying strings out to glue on

NOTE: I found some really neat vintage type of bottle caps at the local flea market (10/$1). You might be able to find some at garage sales (you never know what people will collect), local antique type of stores, or just save your bottle caps from your drinks! You can also check out www.bottlecapco.com; they sell a lot of different kinds of bottle caps. (I haven't bought from them before, but it looks like they have a large variety.)

I used some bottle caps from adult type of beverages. For those bottle caps, I glued the button/string to the top of the cap. On the vintage type of caps, I wanted the tops to be seen, so I glued the button/string to the back of the cap.