Plastic bags can become a really neat craft supply!! Today I'm going to teach you how to easily fuse/melt plastic bags into sheets of 'paper'...then a sweet Valentine Idea at the end!
You will Need: a large paper bag or piece of kraft paper, colored plastic bags without print, an iron, scissors.
Cut off the handle at the top and trim a thin piece off the bottom of your bag (so air can escape easily).
Fold your bag into a square, approximately 8 layers thick. Place the folded bag between 2 pieces of kraft paper (or a cut open paper bag with no print on it).
Begin ironing your folded bag on a medium/regular iron setting (back and forth motion with iron). It will take about a minute with peeking at the bag along the way.
At first, it will still look the same, but as it begins fusing, the shinyness of the plastic goes more matte and you can see a harder look to the plastic. The bag above is almost done, but I saw a few bubbles, so I ironed a little more. After a few times doing this, you'll feel really comfortable with the completion appearance.
This is a finished fused plastic! It can now be cut out into shapes for crafts, used as pages in a minibook (like this), let it behave like fabric and sew a pouch or bag from it, the options are endless :]
Note: The edges are usually not as thick or strong as the rest, it's okay to trim those off.
Sometimes the kraft paper comes off on the fused plastic (probably because I'm too anxious to let it cool). When this happens, use a damp cloth and the paper will rub off.
Tip: If you're using a plastic bag with an image or text printed onto it, the image should be folded inwards, otherwise it will transfer onto the kraft paper like above. Which in this case... I really liked but it's not usually a good look. Target bags look really cool if you face the print inwards and line up the circles :]
Start watching for colorful plastic bags and begin a fused plastic collection for your crafts :)
A Little Valentine...
Draw a heart onto a piece of fused plastic & cut out.
Outline the edge with a permanent marker, write a message on the back and you have a really bright & juicy Valentine! This would also make a cute magnet, bookmark or scrapbook embellishment! :)
Enjoy!
Leigh-Ann :]
Note: Fused Plastic is not my invention, just something I love and learned from a magazine a few years ago.
