Plastic Bottle Bell Jars!

There is something very satisfying about turning trash into treasure. So let me show you how to turn plastic bottles into bell jars!

I'm not the first person to do this, but there aren't many tutorials out there and I believe my method is a bit different.

1. plastic bottle (more about that in Step 1)
2. nail scissors
3. masking tape or glue and newspaper
4. regular scissors
5. air dry clay
6. superglue
7. cereal box
8. pencil
9. black acrylic paint
10. permanent marker or tape

For the bat tree (optional):

1. branch
2. white paint
3. black paper
4. scissors
5. needle and black thread

First, we need to hunt for the right bottles. You want a nice round top and a simple straight body.

It was quite hard to find a bottle that didn’t have the expiration date engraved into the bottle. Luckily, I found a bottle that had ink instead of an engraving on it.

The ink came off with some alcohol, which in my case came in the form of hand sanitizer. Even perfume should work.

Removing the labels might leave behind some sticky glue. Sometimes it comes off easily if you add a little oil and let it sit before wiping it off.

In other cases, you will need a little more elbow grease to get the glue off - you can try using oil and then scratch the glue off with something like a credit card.

Initially, I was going to use a saw to cut off only a part of the bottle necks, cause I’ve read that other people have done that. But right away I could tell that was going to take forever with the hand saws I had.

So I tried something else: Poking the bottle as close to the neck as possible with nail scissors. Unfortunately, that’s also where the plastic gets thicker, so please don’t hurt yourself if you try this.

Next, we will cut off the bottle bottoms.

To get a straight cut, one option is to use a permanent marker and to rest it on something while spinning the bottle. After cutting along that line, you can remove the ink with hand sanitizer again.

Or you can use tape as a guideline.

Now we need to cover that hole at the top. I chose air dry clay for this.

I covered the hole with masking tape, covered the bottle with cling film and tried to make a little dome for the top of the bell jar.

I realised that the masking tape kept moving underneath the clay, so it was impossible to get a perfect shape.

Instead, I just tried to make a rough shape that I could sand down later.

After letting that dry for a few hours, I took it off the bottle so it could dry completely.

Instead of using masking tape, I also tried covering the hole with newspaper strips covered in glue and water (papier mâché).

Once that was dry, I removed it, put it back on and cut it into a circle.

Then I added clay to the paper. This method was quite similar to the masking tape one (it also moved a bit under the clay), but I think the paper gives the clay a little extra strength in the thinner areas.

Next, I used a file and sand paper to create a more even dome shape. I recommend wearing a mask for this part.

I then covered the clay with black acrylic paint.

You can either keep the dome plain or make a more fancy top/handle for your bell jar. I attached another piece of dried clay to my dome with hot glue.

Unfortunately, hot glue is not the best glue to use on plastic bottles - the heat makes the plastic warp, so it could ruin your work.

So instead, I scratched the edge of the opening with a needle and used superglue to attach the domes.

The superglue can leave behind some white residue, so I covered that with black paint and a disc of black craft foam.

The base of the bell jar is also recycled.

I cut out two circles from a cereal box and a few strips that were 1 cm wide.

I then connected the strips with a glue stick and created a ring as wide as the discs we cut out before.

I realised that it would have been helpful to use clasps on the paper strips so you don’t have to hold them so much while they dry.

I just kept adding more strips until the ring was a few layers thick.

To make the outside look smoother, I added strips of thinner paper and tore the edges for seamless transitions.

I then glued the ring to one disc, trying to make it as round as possible.

And for stability I added another small ring of strips to the center.

Now we can add the other disc on top and paint the whole thing with black acrylic paint.

Now what do we put inside these bell jars?

I found a broken branch on my way to the dentist. I broke it into a shape I liked and painted it white.

I cut out paper bats and poked a threaded needle through them so I could hang them onto the branch.

I didn’t even glue the branch down, cause it wasn’t really necessary.

The bell jars can be used for seasons like Halloween or Christmas, but honestly you can put in whatever you like and use them all year round.

Bonus: They protect whatever you put in there from dust.

And don’t throw away the bottom of your bottle if it looks like this! You could turn it into gemstones or spooky eyes. Here you can learn how:

Plastic Bottle Hack: Make Easy Gemstones

Holographic Gemstones from CDs

Translucent Plastic Bottle Gemstones

Spooky Dragon Eyes From Plastic Bottles

Plastic Bottle & Soda Can Gemstones

Thanks for reading this Instructable!