Plastic Bag Rehab
The other day, I found this perfectly clean K-Mart shopping bag at my house (people from photo shoots leave stuff behind ALL the time) and thought it would be a good opportunity to show my little trick on recycling a plastic bag into a fun little plastic flower. All you need is a bag (check!), scissors and a piece of scotch tape. That's it!
Star by crumpling up the bag into a long strip and folding it in half. And again. And once more.
Tie a piece of tape around the middle. It'l look like a big bow tie.
Snip off the ends of each "bow tie", about 1" in from the ends.
Star snipping into the cut parts. This gives the plastic bag flower some detail..
Now start to pull the bag apart by fluffing it on both ends. I find if you just keep smushing it with your hands and seperate the layers, it's enough to get a great looking flower.
Voila! Plastic flower. It reminds me of a peony. It's really easy to do and it can create fun, oversized flowers for a party or an arrangement in just seconds. Have fun!
What a cute idea! It would make a great craft project for children. Mother’s Day will be here before we know it. The children could make some wonderful flowers for their mothers.
I will pass this idea on to our public library.
wonderful
I use on cloth, mesh bags to shop now but I have friends who give me their plastic bags so I can recycle them into shopping bags for them and they pay me $1 per bag. I take the plastic bags and iron them and then stitch them together into reusable grocery bags. It works so great! I in turn make a little money and help save the bags from being put in landfills!
Sonja,
I would love to see photos of this “re made” grocery bag!
what are you using to protect your iron from the melted plastic??
i’m also curious… Target is selling something that sounds very similiar, made from recycled Target plastic bags.
unfortunately for me, i have 2 cats who like to lick plastic bags and try to eat them!!
Danny, i think the flower looks great in the photo
the flowers are a cute idea
Sonja, please share more about your bags
You all should try craftzine.com and type in search for plastic bags. They give so many ideas for reusing plastic bags, including tutorials.
Etsy has all the instructions on how to do this. That is how I learned.
Plus you can make lots of other thing too, wallets, folders, stuffed animals, lots of cool things all from those awful bags.
Inbal an Etsy artist in Israel uses the plastic in her paintings.
Etsy has a tutorial on how to make the plastic material. That is how I learned. You can make lots of great things from wallets to stuffed animals.
Inbal an Etsy artist from Israel uses it in her wall art.
sorry about the double post, lost the page and had to reload, thepage did show up on my page
anyway you can find everything on Etsy.
This is a great idea! I first saw it over at Creature Comforts as a Pom Pom for the holidays
http://creaturecomforts.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/11/diy-eco-happy-pom-pom-gift-topper.html
If I remember right you shared this idea in a magazine and I was thrilled. I do byob but occasionally will have the plastic around. This is a fun idea for bows on packages to!
Here’s another idea:(more complicated, however)
My son has been making messenger bags, fusing trash bags together by ironing them, then sewing multiples together to get enough ‘fabric’ to make a bag. He uses old car seatbelts for the straps. Cool.He is now being commissioned by his friends.The other day he made himself a belt from an old bike tire, complete with buckle. He’s 15, by the way.
Danny, do you remember “pom poms” that skaters wore on their roller skates? I looked for some last year and when I couldn’t find any, I made the same kind of “flower” from the red/white Target bags for my roller skates…I had a pair on each skate for my 45th Birthday Roller Skating Party!!! I love it!
Thanks for the idea. I made some this morning & posted on my blog about it:
http://lifeofourdays.blogspot.com/
What a great ‘flower’, and a great idea. I’ll have to try one.
I have very few plastic bags around, but as it happens, hubby walked in the door last night with a K-mart bag that had been in his truck for a while. I told him about this flower. lol
My bag was smaller, but I made a flower tonight and it turned our great.
Tape a bobby pin in there and you have an adorable flower for your hair! My 5 year old LOVES it!
nice info
i like your artikel
thanks
kampanye damai pemilu indonesia 2009
belajar sulap
there’s a trash revolution happening out there. thanks for being part of the plastic fantastic fun! check out http://www.lousupcycles.etsy.com to see what myself and others are doing with evil plastic!