Four ways with recyling

Make a bird feeder, piggy bank, grow a menagerie or make a golden apple from recycled plastic bottles.

Feed the wild ones
How to: Find a large plastic bottle and cut an opening big enough for a bird to hop inside. Paint the bottle with Resene Softly Softly. Once dry, add grass details in Resene Tutti Frutti and paint the edges of the opening in Resene Gold Dust. Find a large milk bottle and cut out petal shapes for the top. Paint these with Resene Gold Dust, Resene Tacao and Resene New York Pink. Once dry, glue the petals in place.

Tidy the top by wrapping twine around it. Create a loop with the twine so that the feeder can be hung from a tree. Under the opening, cut out a small rectangle and insert a wooden spoon to create a perch for hungry birds. Use a hot glue gun to secure it in place. Fill with wild birdseed and hang in the garden. Note: The Resene paints used are outdoor paints.

Mr Piggy and his coins
How to: This is a simple project, but the plastic edges can be sharp, so it is best for an adult to do the cutting. Find a large plastic bottle and carefully cut it in half. Cut a rectangle out of each half in the exact same spot (this will become the coin slot). Carefully push the halves back together, aligning the rectangles and creating an overlap (this will keep the piggy bank strong). Next, take off the bottle top and paint it with Resene New York Pink. Once dry, use a sharpie to draw on little nostrils. Screw the nose back on and cut a strip of patterned paper to glue around the middle of the pig. Cut a rectangle into the paper strip, making sure it lines up with the coin slot. Roll four strips of pink card into tubes and glue these to the base of the piggy for legs. Using the same card, cut out two ears and a curly tail, and glue in place.

Grow a menagerie
How to: Collect a few plastic bottles of different shapes and sizes. Using a sharpie, draw a horizontal line around the bottle, with two ears on top of the line. Let an adult cut the shape out of the bottle, using a knife or scalpel. Paint the creature pots using Resene paints. Once dry, fill with stones for drainage and pot up the plants.

An apple a day
How to: Find two of the same bottles and cut the bases off. Paint them with Resene Gold Dust. Find a zip that is just slightly longer than the circumference of the bottles. Once the bases are dry, open the zip and use a hot glue gun to attach one half of the zip to theinside of each of the bases, overlapping the zipends at the back to create a hinge.

Don't close the zip until the glue is dry. Using green card or paper, cut out some leaves and cut a section of a paper straw for the stalk. Glue these to the top to finish the apple.

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