Recycled Plastic Beads

Recycled Plastic Beads  

 

Can you guess what I made these beads out of???

 Give up?? Already? One more guess....Ok....

A 2 Liter Bottle...Yup that's right folks! How cool is that?!!  Way cool..just in case you didn't know :)

So I came across this video Here awhile back

I think these are super fun, and I love making unique things out recycled materials!

Here's the materials I used:

Empty 2 Liter Bottle (clean and dry)

Needle Nosed Pliers

Sharpie Markers

Scissors

Heat Gun

I cut the top and bottom portion off of the 2 Liter and then cut the "body" of the bottle into strips. 

Now I am VERY particular..I have a little OCD action going on when I do crafts...so I cut my strips as perfect as possible...

I then colored the strip with a Sharpie

I wrapped it tightly around my pliers, colored side on the inside...sorry I don't have a pic, it didn't turn out good :(

I broke out the heat gun and put some heat on the bead evenly around all sides (holding it with my pliers), until it shrunk a little.  If you put too much heat on it it will shrivel up all funky....

If you don't have a heat gun, I did try this with my blow dryer and that also worked.

I'm going to be honest...this is incredibly easy..however it took me about 4 beads into it before I figured out exactly how long to have the heat on the plastic and what not...again..I wanted mine to look as perfect as possible...I've got issues :)  But I digress...

Here is what a few of my beads looked like when they were done.....

And here is what they look liked after stringing them on some stretchy string....

You can get creative here and add a couple colors to one bead, add dots, squiggly lines, you name it. These are definitely a conversation piece.  I mean who is going to guess that you are wearing a 2 liter plastic soda bottle on your wrist right?? NO ONE..that's who..totally cool if I do say so!

Like I said before, these are easy to make, especially once you get the hang of it.  It only takes a few seconds to make a bead, but I don't suggest this project for young kids.  They could certainly do the coloring, but I'd leave the heating process to the adults.

Happy Crafting!