Making Fused Plastic Straw Ornaments

Craft: Fused Plastic Straw Ornament

attosa
Diamond Post Medal for All Time! 1,246 Posts

November 29, 2018

Fused Plastic Straw Ornament - Christmas tree shaped ornament made from fused drinking straw bits This ornament is made from tiny pieces of plastic straws, fused together by the heat of an iron. When fusing plastics, wear a mask in a well ventilated area.

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: 1 ornament

Supplies:

wide tape like painter's or masking
coloured drinking straws
scissors
tweezers
foil or parchment paper
iron
string

Steps:

Tape down a few strips of tape, sticky side up, on a crafting work surface, piece of cardboard, or wooden board.

Fused Plastic Straw Ornament - tape down some strips of painter's tape with the sticky side up

Cut a bunch of little pieces of straw.

Fused Plastic Straw Ornament - cut up a lot of small pieces of plastic straws

Use your tweezers to lay the design you want to make on the sticky tape to hold them in place.

Fused Plastic Straw Ornament - use tweezers to create the design on the tape

As you go along, press down on the straw pieces firmly onto the tape.

Fused Plastic Straw Ornament - press the pieces down firmly on the tape

Heat your iron to the cotton setting. About every third row, put a piece of foil or parchment paper over all the straws and gently let the iron sit on top evenly. Check under the foil to make sure the straws have fused together.

Fused Plastic Straw Ornament - every few rows, cover with foil and heat with an iron

Keep making your way down, stopping to cover with foil and fuse.

Add any last details (like my tree trunk here) and you're done fusing. Shut off the iron and move it away.

Fused Plastic Straw Ornament - finish the shape and fusing, put iron away

Add a piece of string to the top and hang.

Fused Plastic Straw Ornament - ready to add a piece of string and hang

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Comments

Holly

November 30, 20180 found this helpful

Adorable! That reminds me so much of those plastic beads you could put on a peg-board and fuse together with an iron. I got that for Christmas one year when I was little. :)

attosa
Diamond Post Medal for All Time! 1,246 Posts

December 1, 20180 found this helpful

Thanks Holly! Funnily enough, I only saw those plastic beads for the first time in my life last year. I thought they were a new invention! Where have I been all these decades? :)