Plastic Bag Mini Basket

Plastic Bag Mini Basket!

Did you know some animals end up eating plastic bags as a source of food then die? In fact, plastic is one of the highest causes of death for ocean life. Animals can easily get stuck in plastic bags, ingest them if they are hungry thinking its food, or even have them get stuck on top of them!

Here is a fun activity to use your OWN plastic bags to create your own miniature basket to put small things in! Feel free to make it bigger or smaller, and use different colored bags!

Materials:

Scissors

Hot glue gun/liquid glue (hot glue gun is better since you can use less, but be careful!)

Plastic Bags (the bigger the basket, the more you need! I used around 5 to create a miniature one)

Pencil

Cardboard piece

Access to a knob/doorhandle/hook for braiding

Optional: mini rubber bands to hold braids together

Step 1:

Gather all your materials

Step 2:

Take the pencil and the cardboard. Draw a circle as large as you want the bottom of your mini basket to be. (Tip: use a bowl or circular object to make it even)

Cut out that circle on the line you just drew

Step 3:

Lay the plastic bag flat (keep one handle on the left side, one on the right, as if you were compacting it, bottom part of the bag faces towards you)

Take the scissors and cut the bag into strips around 3 inches wide (make sure the bag was in the same position as above, with one handle on the left, one on the right)

Once cut, each of the separate 3 inch strips should unfold to be a longer strip (the bottom part of the bag has a fold, so when you take the strip and unfold it, the strip grows)

Step 4:

Take around 6 strips and half loop them/fold them around the knob/hook you are using.

Take 3 groups of 2 strands and start braiding. Once finished braiding, remove the braids off the hook/knob

Step 5

Heat up the hot glue gun. Once hot, glue one braid to along the circumference/edge of the cardboard circle you cut it. It should line it up.

Take the next braid and glue it on top of the braid you just glued. It should make the circle grow in height.

Continue along with this process, repeating steps 3 to 5 as many times necessary. Stop gluing the braids on top of each other when you are satisfied with the height of the basket. Try not to use too much glue!

Step 6

Add any final touches to your basket! Old stickers, glitter, or more! Cut off any ends that stick out or parts of the plastic bag not fully incorporated in the braids. There you have it, a plastic bag basket!!