Make It With Miss Rachel: Upcycled Sea Life

You’re going to need a large-ish plastic bottle (think a family-size soda bottle or—in my case—a seltzer bottle), scissors, something to poke holes with (I used an awl, but a nail would also work well), permanent markers, acrylic or poster paint, clear tape, glue, some sort of non-water thinner for the paint (I have both mod-podge and acrylic matte medium on hand—if you have neither, thinning glue with water will serve as a good substitute), and some thin plastics such as bubble wrap or a grocery bag. (I used a grocery bag for my jellyfish, and bubble wrap for my squid). You may also want to raid your recycling bin for any extra appealing goodies such as the egg carton and extra plastic caps pictured here. (If you see something else that looks like it might make a good piece of squid or jellyfish anatomy, feel free to grab it—the only limit is your imagination!)

Remove the label from your bottle, then, using your awl or nail help get you started, cut off both the bottom and the top “bell”—or neck--of the bottle. This should leave you with the following pieces:

The bottom of the bottle will become the top of your jellyfish. The top of the bottle—with the cap on—will become your giant squid’s body. The cylinder of plastic from the bottle’s middle can be recycled at this point, or can be saved and used by advanced crafters to add some extra structure and flair to your jellyfish. Please be careful of the cut edges—they will all be sharp! To make things a bit safer, you can wrap packing tape around the raw edges.

Paint your pieces! You’ll want something opaque for your squid—mix some white in if you need help getting the paint to cover over the plastic—and something translucent (lets some light through!) for your jellyfish cap. For translucence, mix some matte medium, modge podge, or watery glue in with your paint. Be sure to wash out your brush well after you are finished, especially if you use glue! I wanted my jellyfish’s tentacles to stay clear, so I just brushed on a thick layer of modge-podge with glitter, but you can make them whatever color you like! You can also simply use permanent markers, if you’d like!

Paint and color the rest of your recyclables! Cut your plastic bag down the side seams and spread it out to create a nice big canvas to smear with color—don’t worry about consistency, or keeping the color opaque. This is the part where I made my squid’s eyes, as well, by drawing pupils on my spare caps and cutting out the cups of my egg carton container and painting them black and white.

While you wait for things to dry, it’s time for the optional challenge section! Take the middle segment of the bottle, cut a slit all the way up the back, and then cut it into thin strips, stopping about an inch from the top. Then turn it “inside out”—against the way it “wants” to curve—and wrap it around itself. Tape it into place with packing tape. It should look like a fun little skirt!

Take each strip of the skirt and curl it tightly around itself by hand—being careful of those raw edges! You can use a pencil to help, if you need it. Press as hard as you need to. When you let go, the strips should hold a curly shape. Tentacles! Fill the cap of your jellyfish with hot glue and press the end of your tentacle piece inside. Hold it there until the glue cools. You can also tape it into place with packing tape, if you don’t have access to or don’t want to use hot glue.

Return to your bubble wrap and bag plastic. Cut and tear it into long, thin strips, leaving about an inch uncut at the top. For the bag, I actually cut/tore from either side and left an inch uncut in the middle, and then gathered it in a bunch, like so:

For the jellyfish, fill the cap (the bottom of the bottle) with liquid glue or hot glue and then press the uncut inch of your plastic straight into it (if you are using hot glue, be careful not to touch the glue directly!) Set it aside to dry. If you added the hard plastic tentacles, rather than pressing the bag plastic tentacles into the cap, press them carefully into the middle of the “tentacle skirt.” Again, use a pencil or even the back of a paint brush to help if your fingers aren’t long enough or if the rough edges get in the way!

The squid is much the same as the jellyfish—smear glue (or hot glue) around the inside of the bottle neck, then press the uncut inch of your bubble wrap inside. (The bubbles create the effect of suckers on the tentacles!) You can also use packing tape, or even staples around the edges! Glue or tape your squid’s eyeballs in place. If you didn’t have caps or egg cartons in your recycling, you can also draw eyes on paper and cut them out, paint them on flat, or cut them out of a newspaper or magazine!

As a final touch, use your nail or awl to poke two holes in the tops of your creatures, thread some fishing line through, (or simply make use of the cap on your squid’s head to hold the line in place, and let your new friends free to swim through the sky!

Suggested reading to accompany this project:
I’m The Biggest Thing In The Ocean by Kevin Sherry

Giant Squid by Candace Fleming

Ocean Meets Sky by Terry Fan

Skyfishing by Gideon Sterer