Plastic Bottle Bumblebee

Supplies Needed

• Empty plastic bottle
• Yellow spray paint
• Black electric or washi tape
• White craft paper
• Black foam paper
• White paint pen
• Black marker
• Scissors
• Craft knife
• Hot glue gun
• Hot glue sticks

How to Make a Bumblebee “Piggy Bank”

Remove any labels or ink from the bottle and clean then dry it. To begin, you will cut the empty bottle in half in the middle.

Now, on the piece with the lid, cut a small hole on one side, just below the neck, that is around 1″ long and ¼” wide. This is the opening for your “bank” or to slide money through.

Set the two halves of the bottle on paper and spray paint them yellow then set them aside to dry.

When your bottle pieces are completely dry, it’s time to create the bee look. Start, by wrapping the black tape around the base of the bottom half of the bottle. I added this strip of tape just above where the base begins to curve downward into “legs”.

Now, on that same bottle half, wrap the tape around the top edge where it was cut. You can wrap it just up against the edge, or slightly over and fold it down to smooth off that cut edge.

Then, on the top half of the bottle, add a strip of the black tape around halfway down from the lid.

Once this is done, you can then set the top of the bottle over the bottom of the bottle. Since these are fairly flimsy bottles, they should slide over the base easily and notch inside.

Now, use black foam or felt, and cut out two circles for the eyes.

Then, use a white paint pen to create a large dot on one upper side of the circles.

Then add three small dots on the opposite bottom side of the eyes.

Glue these to the bottle, just below where the neck begins to curve up to the lid. When doing so, make sure the side with the three small dots is facing the bottom of the bottle.

Now, fold a piece of white paper or felt in half. Trace along the side of the paper a wing shape. I use the “m” shape, making one of the sides slightly smaller than the other. You want your wings to be about half the height of the bottle and about 2″ wider on both sides of the bottle.

Cut this out and glue it to the back of the bottle with the smaller wing side facing the top.

Now, on black foam paper or craft paper, draw two antenna shapes and cut them out.

Glue these to the top lid on the bottle.

If desired, use a marker to make a small smile below the eyes on the bottle.

Now your bee is ready to use to hold money!