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Plastic bottle fish painted red, yellow, blue and orange against a blue backdrop.
Print Recipe

Make a Fun Plastic Bottle Fish Craft (recycled)

Let’s Make a Fun Plastic Bottle Fish Craft. Create a whole school of colorful fish from recycled water bottles! 
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time35 minutes
Total Time40 minutes
Course: Recycled Craft
Cuisine: Craft
Keyword: fish made from plastic bottles, fish made out of water bottles, fish out of plastic bottles, making fish from plastic bottles, plastic bottle fish, plastic bottle fish art, plastic bottle fish craft, plastic water bottle fish, water bottle fish craft
Servings: 1 Plastic bottle fish
Author: Shelly
Cost: $1

Equipment

  • Paint brushes
  • Hot glue gun
  • Hole punch

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Take the lid off of the bottle and set aside. Cut off the bottom of the bottle. Smash down the bottom end of the water bottle leaving the top half more 3-D. 
  • Cut two triangle shapes out, one down into the bottle from the top and one from the bottom. This is done about halfway down the flattened sides of the bottle.
  • Staple the area between these two points of your triangles to hold this in shape. Can you see the outline of a fish?Cut the two edges of the bottle that are along the edge of the tail so that the two flaps of the tail are separate
  • Holding the plastic water bottle from the opening, paint your fish with the acrylic paint in colors of your choice. Set the fish down on the bottle opening so that the body the fish goes straight up. Allow it to sit and dry this way. This will probably take about 15 minutes.
  • While that is drying, cut out some fins from the craft foam. If you don’t have craft foam, you could use colored cardboard or just plain cardboard and then paint it after it is put on the fish. Cut a top and bottom fin that are similar in shape, one larger (top) and one smaller (bottom). Then cut two small side fins.
  • Cut a slit along the top edge of the fish, insert the piece of craft foam, and staple it in place. Repeat this for the bottom fin.Use a hot glue gun to glue the side fin on either side of the fish.
  • Use hot glue to put on googly eyes. Or you can paint eyes on your fish if you prefer. Use paint to make more detail designs on your fish. Add spots, stripes, eyelashes, additional markings on the mouth, whatever you would like!
  • To hang your fish, use a hole punch to punch one hole in the top fin. Fishing line works well to hang these because you can’t see it. But you could also use string or thread.
  • These would look nice hung on a rod, stick, or an embroidery hoop. Make a grouping of fish if you are making a mobile and hang the fish at different heights.

Video

Notes

Take the cap off of the water bottle. You can put your finger into the hole and hold the bottle easily while painting it on both sides. Then set it up on the mouth of the container and it will stand up so the bottle can dry on both sides at once!