Recycle Your Grocery Plastic Bag

April 14, 2009 by Craft Passion

in Tutorial, Tutorials

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Do you have the habit of keeping your grocery plastic bags? I do, and have plenty of them in my carbinet. I know that I will find good use for them one day instead of throwing them away into the dustbin and loading the landfill.



I emptied them out on the weekends as there were too many to keep. Looking at them and noticing that some plastic bags are so beautifully designed, it seems like such a wastes, so I made this!!! Fused plastic sheet for various crafts, you can even sew on them. At this point of time the outlook of the plastic sheet doesn’t seems appealing to you but it will be a great art when you put them together with other material. I am going to use them to make a recycled tote bag!!!







Let me bring you to the tutorial on how to make these fused plastic sheets. I will keep the recycled tote bag for another post in few days time, so please come back and check for the updates.



Material



2 sheets of blank white paper,

A pair of scissors,

a thick towel,

iron,

plenty of thin grocery plastic bags, and

a well ventilated room

Method

Cut the grocery plastic bags into flat rectangle sheet, i.e cut away the handles, the bottom and side seams. Stack 6-8 pieces of equal size together. The most top and bottom plastic sheet must be white and blank.

Sandwich 2 pieces of plain white paper in between the plastic pile. The paper must be bigger than the plastic so you won’t iron and melt your plastic and stick on it.

Set the iron to medium heat and stroke across the plastic pile slowly and evenly.



The heat from the iron will fuse the plastic sheets underneath. Remove the iron and press against the pile with a thick towel to let it cool down slowly. Please don’t touch the surface directly as it is quite hot for your bare hand to handle it. As it cools, the plastic pile will harden and shrink a little, you will hear some creeping sounds. If you skipped this step, your plastic pile will shrink and roll up while it cools, as a result, you won’t get a flat plastic sheet.



Take a closer look of how it looks after the fusing. See, they are bonded together!!!

You need to try out a few times to get the right temperature. The photo shown below was my failed trial. The reason being was that I set my iron temperature too high and the plastics were melted and formed holes. If you find that you plastics are not fusing, that means your iron is not hot enough, increase the temperature or stroke it longer.





If you have any questions, please do leave comments below and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Good luck.

want more ?

 

For a tutorial on how to create plastic bag fabric....go here:

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=178442.new#new

Save the Monarch Butterfly

Free Milkweed Seeds

Help your kids save the monarch butterfly.

There are certain things I remember from my childhood summer days. The special trips we took as a family to the Catskill mountains were a favorite. I was growing up in a small suburb that was quickly turning into a city. We had a small patch of grass in the backyard and really scary neighbors who yelled at me. Needless to say, I avoided the back yard. So when our family spent summers in a little cabin surrounded by forest it was life changing to me.
Our first two weeks were unlike anything I have ever known. No electricity or running water. The utility companies were stalling because I think they had no idea how to navigate through the woods to get to us. Having no distractions from T.V. or anything else, my favorite activity was spending the day wandering down trails collecting huge bouquets of wildflowers. There were just never ending hills filled with them. Even though that by the time I came home they were a little wilty and bent, my mom would always find some place to put them on display.
So, why the trip down memory lane? There was one flower I should not have picked. It was big and beautiful. covers in orange flower buds. It was called common milkweed. Let me tell you this is a great injustice. This flower is way to pretty and special to be called that sad name. Remember those breathtaking orange and black butterflies that seemed to be everywhere? Well now they are disappearing. I am sure there are a ton of reasons why. The one thing I know is that milkweed is scarce. This is the only plant that a monarch butterfly will lay her eggs on. A food source for the caterpillars.
This spring please consider carving out a small patch of dirt and spread some seeds with your kids. They will love it. Worms, water, mud! What more can a kid ask for? Well, the joy on my little ones faces about 3 months later when we spotted our first monarch caterpillar was worth its weight in gold to me.

There are many sites that will send you milkweed seeds at a very low price. They are trying to get this native natural beauty back where she belongs.  Click the link on top for some free seeds to get you started, or get a jump with a plant.

Trendy Treehouse: ★ Marketing Mondays Blog Hop ★

Trendy Treehouse: ★ Marketing Mondays Blog Hop ★



come on over and join!

Made by Petchy: FREE PATTERN : BABY DRESS/TUNIC

Made by Petchy: FREE PATTERN : BABY DRESS/TUNIC

what a great design!

come join the fun!

or just check out how cute this place is.

 

Reclaiming The Home: Stripey Hippie Skirt/ Shirt Tutorial

Here is a great tutorial for a child's hippie top/skirt. I really like this one because the instructions seem easy to understand. I have been working on a similar skirt and will post some pics when I am done. I am loving the stripes.

Reclaiming The Home: Stripey Hippie Skirt/ Shirt Tutorial