Summer-lovin' Accessory Set : 7 Steps (with Pictures)

Have a date tonight? Look through your trash. Don’t worry, we aren’t talking about serving your leftover food to your date; look through your recycle trash. If you have any plastic bottles, plastic take-out boxes, or cardboard thrown in there, take them out because we’re getting you ready for the perfect look to glam you up!

Step 1:

Step 2: Material List

Materials

· Pet bottles

· Simple hair clips

· Strings for necklaces

· Flat plastic (e.g. lid from plastic take-out boxes)

· Cardboard

· Thumbtacks (not flat)

Tools

· Nail polish and/or permanent markers

· Scissors

· Cutter knives

· Iron

· Bond (glue)

· Oven or toaster

· Cooking sheet or aluminium foil

· Masking tape

· A lighter

This accessory set has two components – a board for storage and the accessories themselves.

We made different types of accessories including hair clips, necklaces, and bracelets, so that you have a wide range of accessories to choose from and make! Follow along!

Step 3: STEP 1: MAKING THE BOARD

We first worked on the board by cutting four pieces of 25cm by 33cm cardboard. We stuck the four pieces together with glue to create some thickness. Then, we took some leftover cardboard to create a frame by cutting two 17cm by 4cm pieces and two 33cm by 4cm pieces. We glued all four pieces on one side of the board to create a frame.

Once the basic structure of the frame was made, we started the decoration process. We cut the flat side of the plastic lid into circles, squares, rectangles, and other shapes. Then, we used a pair of scissors to hold a piece of plastic above a lighter, which we used to heat the rims. Because we wanted to create a variety of shapes that resembled pieces of glass, we changed the length of time of heating for each piece. We heated them longer for smaller, more three-dimensional shapes, and shorter for larger, flatter shapes. The plastic burned when we heated it for too long though, so we made sure to heat it intermittently.

After the plastic cooled, we decorated them with nail polish, waited until they dried, and glued them onto the frame. Then, we stuck the thumbtacks on an empty plastic box, coated them with nail polish, waited until they dried, and stuck them on the board for the accessories to hang from them.

Step 4: STEP 2: MAKING HAIRCLIPS

We then moved onto the accessories. We used a cutter knife and a pair of scissors to cut the sides of the bottle into two-dimensional shapes of our choices. We made sure to cut it a little bigger than the size we wanted though, because it would shrink when heated later on. Then, we decorated the cut-outs with permanent markers.

Next, we put the cut-outs on a piece of cooking sheet (like the picture below), and heated in the oven (200°C, 5 minutes).

After they cooled, we used a glue gun to stick the cut-outs with the hair clips.

Step 5: STEP 3: MAKING SINGLE STRAND BEADS NECKLACES AND BRACELETS

For this type of accessory, we used a cutter knife and a pair of scissors to cut the sides of the bottles into rectangular strips. We then decorated the strips with permanent markers, laid them out on a piece of cooking sheet or flattened out piece of crumpled aluminum foil, and put them in the oven or toaster.

With the oven, we heated them at 200℃ for 5 minutes, and with a toaster, we heated them until the strips no longer shrunk or curled.

When the strips were inside the oven or toaster, we cut the strings into the length of our choice, depending on whether we wanted to make bracelets or necklaces. We took the sheet or foil and the resulting beads out once the heating was done. Finally, we slid the beads onto the string, and tied the ends of the string.

Step 6: STEP 4: MAKING BANGLE BRACELETS:

Next, we worked on was the bangle bracelet. Using a cutter knife, we cut the sides of the pet bottles into a closed ring shape, while keeping the cylindrical shape intact. Taking an iron, we heated the rims to flatten them out, and heated the overall shape until the plastic was nice and firm. Then, we coated the bracelets with nail polish for decoration.