If the catalogs are any clue as to what’s popular these days, then cache pots are making a comeback. Taking a hint from them, we forged ahead with some ideas of our own. With the popularity and availability of metal sheets, we made ours of the kind of copper sheeting that is available in your craft stores. Because the sheets usually come in 12-inch widths, we were limited in size, but these are perfect for small plants or for growing herbs.
Materials:
12" x 12" sheet medium-weight copper
ruler
stylus
scissors for cutting metal
bone folder
1/8" hole punch
tiny brads
metal glue or 1/4" industrial-strength, double-sided tape
12" x 12" sheet medium-weight aluminum & brass*
crimper*
Sizzix die-cutting machine*
frog and flower dies*
* These materials are used for the embellishments added to our cache pot. The basic cache pot requires only the copper sheet.
Steps:
1. Mark off a 12" x 12" piece of copper at 4 and 8 inches. Using a stylus and ruler, draw lines at these measurements (figure A). Turn copper a quarter turn and repeat this step. You have created a grid of nine 4-inch squares (figure B).
2. The four corner squares will be cut out, leaving the five remaining squares for shaping the cache pot (one square for the bottom and one for each of the four sides). However, before cutting out the corners, mark off an added 1/4 inch to each side edge (figure C) of the four outside squares (figure D).
3. Measure and mark off with a stylus a 1/4-inch border on the top (outside) edge of the four squares. Fold over along each of these lines and press smoothly with a folding bone (figure E). This will give the finished cache pot a smooth top edge.
4. Starting on one of the four outside squares, fold over the extending 1/4-inch flap on the left side of the square and press flat with the folding bone as you did with the top flaps. Use a ruler to ensure a straight fold (figure F). This is essential. Fold the extending 1/4-inch tab on the right side of the square up (figure G). Do not fold over. Repeat on the remaining three outside squares.
5. Fold each of the four outside squares up to form the cache pot (figure H). After lining up the adjoining edges so they are perfectly matched (figure I), run a strip of metal glue or a length of the industrial-strength, double-sided tape on the extending tab and press to the adjoining side to secure. Repeat on all four sides.
6. To add the embellishment featured on the cache pot demonstrated on the show: Cut four 3-1/4" x 3-1/4" pieces of the aluminum. Run each piece through a crimper and attach each piece to one side of the cache pot using the glue or tape (figure J).
7. Using the personal die cutter, cut two frogs out of scrap pieces of the copper and two frogs from the brass. Also cut two small flowers out of copper and two out of the brass. Cut four small flowers out of aluminum. Cut two large flowers of brass and two of copper (figure K).
8. Cut the legs from the copper frogs and attach to the brass frogs using the double-sided adhesive. Attach the two-tone frogs to the crimped aluminum squares on opposite sides of the cache pot (figure L).
9. Cut out the centers of the small aluminum flowers and run through the crimper once. Turn the center a quarter turn and run through the crimper a second time. Punch a 1/8-inch hole in the center of the aluminum crimped center.
10. Punch holes in the center of each of the small copper and brass flowers. Use the tiny copper brads to create two small, three-layer, multicolored flowers.
11. Punch holes in the center of each of the large flowers and the two remaining small aluminum flowers. Use the tiny copper brads to create two large, three-layer, multicolored flowers.
12. Attach a large and small flower to the two remaining sides of the cache pot with the double-sided tape (figure M). Bend the petals out to give the flowers dimension.
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