Picnics and Pickles: DIY Recycled Plastic Bottle Gift / Party Box

Wednesday 15 May 2013

DIY Recycled Plastic Bottle Gift / Party Box

For years I have seen these cute gift boxes made from recycled 2l Coke bottles and have always wondered how to make them, so I stumbled across step by step instructions illustrated by Crafty Corner. Below are the steps and pics of how to make them. This is a nice holiday craft idea for the younger kids.

What you will need:

Clean, 2l plastic Coke bottle
Craft scissors/knife
Paintbrush
Scissors
Modge podge
Marking pen
Serviettes

Step 1

Remove label & cut off the top section of the Coke bottle just above the bottom section where the label was.

Step 2

Draw archways from one groove, over onto another groove & down another using your marking pen. The groove that gets left in the centre of the panel is what makes the gift box snap closed & stay down. Essentially you will be drawing a straight line up one groove, then curving it with the peak of the curve on the next groove, and then straight down the next groove.

Step 3

Cut out your arches with a strong scissors. You might need to cut the walls that go down to the part where your two archways join a bit wider so they don't catch onto each other when you try fold them closed.

Step 4

You need to cut all your arches to the same height. This helps to keep the gift box closed naturally. When cutting down, it is important to make sure that you stop cutting before the bottle starts to taper out, otherwise the flaps will not stay down.

Step 5

Choose a serviette that you like to use to decorate your coke bottle gift box with. Separate the two parts of tissue so you only have the printed sheet.

Step 6

Place your serviette around the gift box to plan how you would like it to look.

Step 7

Start painting modge podge onto the serviette which you should be holding against the Coke bottle with one hand. Now very gently apply the modge podge as the serviette is easily torn!

Make sure you cover the entire area of the Coke bottle with modge podge! Paint directly onto the tissue paper and the glue will soak through and glue itself to the plastic.