Plastic Bunting

Last week provided an end to the 'heatwave' and brought a very welcome (for me!) rainy day!

I was actually looking forward to this as I had a project ready & waiting, the lovely Original Stitch had mentioned on her twitter feed about a recycling project to do with the kids: http://originalstitch.blogspot.com/2010/06/eco-tip-1-party-bunting-and-wood.html

The original tutorial was from Amelia's Magazine, which is very instructive.

 Basically you need to cut up some plastic bags, sandwich them between greaseproof paper and iron to create a thicker plastic material.

It's a case of trial and error, I've found that some of the ink's tend to get sticky and stick to the paper, so it's best to sandwich them with clearer plastic bags over the top.

The cheap supermarket bags need to be layered as they tend to get holes in if they're too thin.

It's best if you have nice carrier bags!

I got too hot doing the ironing but would have liked to spent longer making better collages with the prints or putting sequins/threads in the layers!

Iron lightly on each side and then leave for about 10 seconds, with some bags you'll hear the plastic crackling as it cools down and then it's easier to peel the paper away.

Once the grown-up job was done (and you could of course do it in advance if you're one of those organised mummy's!) it was time for the production line!

Cue music to work too, lots of drawing round a triangle template and then lots of scissor cutting out action! 

My girls loved this as we used 'grown-up' scissors as their kiddy ones weren't really up to the job.

Next job was to put holes in the top corners, my hole-punch didn't like it so instead we went all Blue Peter and used kebab sticks with blue-tack under the flags.

After hunting out the garden twine from the shed (in the pouring rain) both my youngest and me set about threading them up.  The Eldest had got bored by now and was back to her usual 'nose in a book' position!  I thought this would be too tedious for the 5 yo but she loved it and did great, by the time we'd finished the sun had come out so we were able to hang it out to see the fruits of our labours.

It's not the most prettiest or well designed but as a lovely project that we all did together I'm more than happy with it.  It also really cheers up the ugly wooden fence!