How To Make A Pop Tab Purse

This whole thing started with a contest win. I won a book that showed different "green" items. You name it and this book had a picture of it made from something that had been something else originally. One of the pictures that really jumped out at me was a purse constructed from pop tabs. I couldn't help but thinking it looked really neat.

I went online to try to figure out how to make one. Site after site all I found was others just like me trying to figure it out. Only a few sites had information on it and not on putting together the whole thing. It took some trial and error but I figured out a way to construct a purse from pop tabs.

1. First thing you need to know is that you will need A LOT of pop tabs. My finished purse contained 727 pop tabs. You can buy them from e-bay or better yet ask friends and family members to save them for you. 2. You will need some way to hold the pop tabs together.

I chose craft wire. But, you could use ribbon, jump rings, or anything else you could think of. I liked the craft wire because I could wrap it around and it would hold its shape. But, when I was done, the purse ended up being very stiff. Ribbon would allow it more give.

Jump rings would add more give for sure. But, it is your personal choice. It's all about the look you want in the end. 3. Think about what colors you want your purse. I wanted a silver and black one. So I used the tabs as they were and black craft wire. Another beautiful idea I saw was pink and silver. You can spray paint your tabs whatever color you would like. The pink and silver one had the tabs painted pink and used silver jump rings to hold them together.

Again, this is your personal choice. You can personalize this purse just for you. 4. Once you have collected the pop tabs the first step is to wash and dry them. Trust me -- they may look clean but they aren't. 5. I cut my craft wire at 3.5 inches. This was a good length for me. You can clearly see a black line running in between all the tabs, which is what I wanted. The longer you cut your wire the more times you will go around the tabs.

The shorter the wire, the less you will go around the tabs. Yet again, this is all about what you personally want this to look like in the end. 6. We will now start the layout for the purse. Start with 4 pop tabs. Lay two of the tabs side by side, same side up as you would find then on your pop cans, with the ends that you would grab to open a pop facing down.

Then lay the next two over top the first two that same way. Just so you know, getting this started seems tricky, but after a while you will be a pro. Take your wire and put it through the hole in the middle. Your wire should be entering two tabs on each side.

Using needle nose pliers to hold the one end of your wire, push the other end through the holes. Continue to do this till you are just about out of wire, pulling tight each time. Make sure you end up with both ends on the backside of the tabs. Using the pliers, grab both ends and twist tightly a couple times. Then bend down the end of the wire against the back of the tabs. You have just formed your first set of links.

7. Take the next two tabs and lay them the same way on your now connected four tabs. Once again, wrap the wire around and around then twist off. Continue adding tabs in this fashion until you have the height you would like for your purse. My purse ended up being 7.5 inches tall, which was 16 tabs in height. 8. Now that we have decided the height of our purse we need to determine the length.