When you think about items to recycle or upcycle, plastic grocery bags almost certainly come to mind. There is a trend toward eliminating the need for so many of these plastic bags. We have all seen the reusable bags for sale at our local super market. Still there is a surplus of this material. From our newspaper delivery, our favorite retail shop or the take out food we order, plastic bags are everywhere.
If you are a crafter and enjoy making useful or pretty things out of items that have lost their usefulness than you probably have already found some great uses for your excess plastic bags.
For a couple of years my sister has been crocheting bags into new bags and purses. Here are a couple of her creations. Sadly I never learned how to crochet so I didn't know of any projects that I could do to upcycle plastic bags.
A month or so ago I stumbled onto a video on Etsy.com. It is a tutorial on how to fuse plastic bags. This new information got my creative juices flowing. There are so many possibilities with this "new" material. So far I have made some covers for hand made journals and some earrings.
I have seen some other really great fused plastic projects on Etsy.com, including pretty wallets and full sized rain jackets. If you haven't tried upcycling plastic bags yet you should give it a try. There are all sorts of possibilities. Check out these links for some fun and interesting projects that other people have created. One last tip: All the tutorials I have seen on fusing plastic tell you to turn the bags inside out so you are not ironing the side with the ink. Unfortunately that is usually the most interesting part of the bag. It will take some experimenting but by adding a layer of clear plastic to the top of your project you can use the printed side right side up. Also experiment with heat settings different type of plastic bags melt at different heat settings.
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