How to Make Crafts With Milk Jugs

Crafts made from milk jugs are an economical way to provide art inspiration for schoolchildren while keeping trash out of our overflowing landfills. A milk jug can be easily cut into any imaginable shape with scissors, and the surface works well for painting and glue adhesion.

Save milk jugs for a preteen girl's sleepover, and craft simple holiday decorations or fun fashion accessories that guests will be proud to take home.

Things You'll Need

• Gallon milk jugs
• Miniature cookie cutters
• Pen
• Scissors
• Rubbing alcohol and cotton ball
• Scrap of wood
• Awl, nail or ice pick
• Hammer
• Assorted acrylic paints
• Paint brush
• Clear acrylic spray sealer
• Jewelry jump rings, two
• Fishhook earring wires, one pair
• Jewelry pliers or needle-nose pliers
• 1-inch wood star
• Paper hole punch
• Brad paper fasteners, 12
• Sand, two cups
• Baby food jar
• Tea light candle

Instructions

Milk Jug Earrings

1. Cut the jug apart so you can set each milk jug side flat on a table. Place a miniature cookie cutter on the plastic and trace around it using an ink pen. Trace another one to form a pair. Cut the shapes out using scissors. Apply rubbing alcohol to a cotton ball and wipe the pen marks off the plastic.

2. Lay the shapes on a piece of scrap wood. Place the point of an awl, nail or ice pick an 1/8 inch from the top edge of the shape, and tap with a hammer to create a hole. Paint the shapes using acrylic paints and allow to dry. Spray with clear acrylic sealer and allow to dry.

3. Use jewelry pliers or needle-nose pliers to open a jewelry jump ring. Slip the jump ring through the hole in the shape and through the ring on the bottom of a fishhook earring. Using the pliers, pinch the ring opening back together. Repeat for the other shape to complete a pair of earrings.

Fourth of July Luminary

1. Measure up four inches from the bottom of a milk jug, and mark a line all the way around the jug. Use the point of your scissors to pierce the side of the jug at the mark. Using the mark as a guide, cut off the top of the milk jug. The bottom half will be the luminary.

2. Trace a 1-inch wood star shape, 12 times, on the cut-off milk jug top. Cut the stars out. Discard the rest of the milk jug top or save for another project. Punch a hole in the center of each milk jug star using a paper punch. Paint six stars red and six stars blue using acrylic paints. Allow the paint to dry. Spray with clear acrylic sealer and allow to dry.

3. Punch three holes on each side of the milk jug bottom. The holes should be evenly spaced and 1/4 inch down from the cut edge. Alternating the red and blue stars, attach them to the milk jug luminary. Insert a brad paper fastener into a star and into a hole on the outside of the luminary. Open the ends of the fastener inside the luminary to hold.

4. Place two cups of sand in the luminary. Set a baby food jar in the center of the sand and insert a tea light candle in it.