Benefit from the idea
Plastic food containers are made to store various drinks, and, as a rule, the material does not decompose quickly and can rot for hundreds of years. In addition, if there are no specialized landfills at the place of residence for the disposal of such waste, then people will have to throw away the containers near their home. This, in turn, will pollute the area.
Of course, you can find a different approach and burn the garbage, but this will pollute the atmosphere; in addition, there are already enough harmful sources that destroy the environment. There is another unique approach - plastic bottles can be used to make some decorative items, for example, palm trees.
From such a seemingly useless container you can make an evergreen tree. You just need to take bottles of brown and green colors. If there are children in the family, then it is advisable to involve them in such an exciting activity. You can decorate with a plastic palm tree:
- empty garden plot;
- the area located near buildings;
- playground for children;
- house area;
- a piece of land near an artificial pond.
An artificial palm tree brings great effect if it is located near a playground. This is a win-win option, children will rejoice at such a creation.
Even those parents who are not at all versed in creativity can make a palm tree.
If you only have transparent drink bottles, then don’t be upset, because purchasing paint will correct the whole situation. The leaves turn green and the trunk turns brown.
Materials and tools
Before starting work, the master needs to stock up on everything necessary. It is worth noting that the larger the volume of the bottle, the more magnificent the artificial palm tree will be. List of tools and materials for making an evergreen tree:
- long plastic pipe or iron fittings;
- braided wire or thick rope;
- tape or glue;
- plastic bottles;
- scissors or stationery knife;
- If you are using transparent containers, purchase brown and green paints.
If there are a large number of bottles available, then it is advisable to choose the same sizes. In this case, the tree trunk will look much more beautiful. But bottles for leaves can be used in different diameters. Small ones are suitable for creating foliage in the center of the crown. Half-liter or liter brown containers are useful for small palm branches. It is not necessary to look for containers that have a certain green tint. You can combine colors. It will even improve the palm tree.
Step-by-step production of a man-made tree
To do a quality job, you need to carefully study all the nuances of creating a plastic palm tree. According to the stories of craftsmen, assembling the structure takes only a few hours. A palm tree made from plastic bottles is built with your own hands step by step in four stages:
- creating a plan and choosing the location of the structure;
- installation of prepared foliage;
- barrel manufacturing;
- turning all the parts into wood by fastening them.
Important!
Found bottles must be washed from dirt and thoroughly wiped with a rag. Pasted labels also come off. To do this, just immerse the container in warm water until the paper becomes limp and wipe it off with a cloth. In fact, there are many tutorials on how to make bottle palm trees. But this option is the best and most popular, because the result is a truly realistic tree. And if you find large bottles, the tree will become more magnificent and beautiful.
Drawing a sketch and selecting a site
At the beginning of the work, a simple sketch is created and you need to calculate the required number of bottles for the entire structure. It is important that there are enough bottles for assembly, otherwise you will have to go looking for other vessels. The first stage of how to make a palm tree from plastic bottles:
- The diagram shows the size of the barrel and other details.
- Then the location of the product is selected. It is enough to go out into the courtyard of the dacha and take a close look at exactly where the structure will look best.
- If there is a gazebo at the dacha, then it would be great to install artificial trees near the building.
- You should not place the palm tree in areas through which traffic will move; naturally, the structure will interfere. For example, it is not recommended to place a tree very close to the gate.
In any case, all the details are thought out.
Foliage cutting
After the preparatory work, leaves for the palm tree are made. You will need to take a stationery knife or scissors, cable or rope. How to make a palm tree of their bottles - the second stage:
- The vessel is taken and cut into two parts. Using scissors or a stationery knife, remove the lower part - the bottom. This item will no longer be needed. And the place where there is a neck will serve as a preparation for foliage.
- Now strips are cut on the bottle, making neat longitudinal cuts. The strips should be thin and equal in width. Of course, this does not mean that you need to line the entire bottle to get symmetrical stripes, because the work will take a lot of time. It is enough to make even cuts, as they say, “by eye.”
- To make the process go faster, four longitudinal cuts are made on the bottle. Then the 4 parts are divided in half to make 8 parts. This procedure is carried out until a pinnate leaf is obtained, which has a strip approximately 1 cm wide.
- Next, the prepared parts are strung on a thick rope or cable. To secure the “petiole” of the sheet, the lid must be screwed on the very first workpiece. The last petal is twisted in the same way.
Assembling a palm tree from plastic bottles - step by step for beginners
There are a lot of options for making a plastic palm tree, let’s look at the most common ones.
1. Barrel.
It can be based on:
- metal rod or fittings;
- wooden post;
- dried tree.
Let's consider options for making a palm tree trunk. Various technologies were used to make the trunks of these palm trees.
In the first case , the tops of the bottles were simply cut off and they were strung on a rod, inserted into each other. This only vaguely resembles a palm tree trunk, but is simple to do and does not require as many bottles as other methods.
The second option resembles the first, but in it the tops of the bottles are cut out with a crown, the teeth of which are slightly turned outward.
The third one requires a fairly large number of bottles, but in this way you can decorate very thick bases, imitating real types of palm trees with thick trunks, or turn dried tree trunks, freed from excess branches, into them.
Sometimes, in order not to look for such a huge number of brown bottles of the same type, they collect white bottles of the same shape, and after screwing their bottoms with self-tapping screws to the wooden base of the trunk, they paint them together in the same brown color.
This can be done with fading-resistant acrylic paints or automotive enamels, although some use cheaper nitro paints from aerosol cans. Sometimes, with a brush, after the first layer has dried, the recesses are painted in a darker color, the result is more realistic. It is better to cover everything with colorless frost-resistant varnish after painting.
Forming the texture of the barrel using the fourth method also takes quite a large number of bottles, but such an imitation looks even more believable and beautiful. Such scales are obtained using the curvature of bottle legs.
Unlike the previous options, formed from below, the assembly of such a “bark” is carried out from the upper part of the “trunk”, when the fasteners of the upper layers (screws, nails, staples) are covered with the lower ones, and the very bottom is dug into the ground or sprinkled with it.
The fifth option is similar to this method , only it imitates the appearance of palm trees, the bark of which is formed by leaves that die off as the tree grows, leaving behind protruding thick parts of the cuttings. We will not describe the method of its formation; it is clear from the photograph.
And we will illustrate with step-by-step photographs the simplest of the textured methods, only unlike the photographs in which it is shown, and where only the lower halves of the bottles are used, we will use all the material. We took a white bottle so that the markings would be more visible.
To enlarge the picture, click on it.
The upper part of the bottle, after cutting and bending the ends, is unfolded and inserted into the lower one. Both fit onto a metal rod that forms the shaft and bends to your liking. To do this, holes of the required diameter are drilled in the bottoms of the bottles, as in the photo.
With this method it is easy to calculate the required number of bottles.
It is not that big: for a 3-meter barrel you will need 19 - 20 two-liter bottles.
To make the plastic more massive and resist creasing in the future, the insides of the bottles can be filled with sand during assembly.
2. Leaves.
Some of them only vaguely resemble palm trees, but they are easy to make.
It’s more difficult when you have to do extra work with scissors.
To enlarge the picture, click on it.
You can lightly cast a spell over the edges of the leaves with an open fire, as in the last photo of this collection, and they will take on a more natural look, because in nature there are no leaves with rectangular ends.
A reliable fastening will be achieved if a washer with tubes into which the metal rods of palm tree branches are inserted is welded to the metal rod of the trunk. You can screw such a washer to a wooden trunk or simply drill it and insert scraps of metal tubes.
You can collect branches using the corks of the bottles themselves.
Or you can cut off the threaded necks and use a stapler. Or, inserting bottle leaves one by one, secure only the last one to the rod.
The video shows the step-by-step production of a palm tree from plastic bottles:
Paper palm tree for apartment
Craftsmen make many crafts using glue and colored paper. Such creations will not only delight the whole family, but will also decorate the interior of the apartment. A paper palm differs from a plastic one primarily in material and design. And it will take very little time to make. First, tools and materials are prepared:
- scissors;
- brown paper;
- green paper;
- copper or aluminum wire 30 cm long;
- glue.
Quick assembly
Now that all the structural elements are ready, let's begin the assembly. There are several options for arranging ready-made elements. Let's stick to something simpler. We prepare the top of the trunk, cut off the neck from the brown bottle. Almost at the very bottom we make several cross-shaped cuts. This is where we will insert our crown. The assembly process is presented more clearly in the diagrams below.
Important! For the resulting masterpieces, it is necessary to make a foundation so that they stay well in the ground and do not wobble.
If you have the opportunity, you can prepare a welded structure for subsequent concreting.
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What wonderful and unique trees we have, so you can create a whole exotic evergreen alley in your garden that will be the envy of your neighbors. Imagine and create interesting crafts for your site, and involve children in the work.
Use your imagination and decorate your tropical beauties using multi-colored bottles of smaller diameter: add fruits to palm trees in the form of bananas and coconuts.
Pay attention to the creations of your colleagues, take notes and use the techniques and elements you like in your work. Some work options are shown in the photo below:
