I love finding new ways to upcycle plastics into functional home accessories. It's fun, creative, and helps the environment. Plastics tend to end up in our oceans causing harm to marine life, which is very close to my heart. Mariner, is our very high maintenance, and very much adored, Betta Fish. We originally bought him to tend to an aquafarm/hydroponics planter but he was very unhappy in that tank (and it cracked). He's very smart and we've trained him to jump for food, dance around his tank and shake his "bon bon" every time he hears Ricky Martin!  Unfortunately, he only likes to swim in the highest quality of bottled Betta Water. Any other treated water and he gets very dramatic; sinks to the bottom and blows out bubbles like me having an asthma attack. So we indulge him, and buy him bottled water,  which has afforded me the opportunity to become very creative with upcycling plastic! 

Here is an easy way to make a plain plastic bottle into a charming rustic planter with just a few simple supplies. 

• 1/4 inch rope (how much depends on the size of your bottle)
• Plastic bottle
• Scissors
• Craft glue (I like using E-6000)
• Potting soil
• Succulent or small plant
• Moss for decoration (optional)

I used scissors to cut the top of the plastic bottle.

It doesn't take much glue to cover the bottle in rope so I just squeezed a few lines of glue around the base of the bottle. Next I wrapped the rope around the bottle starting from the bottom and working my way towards the top rim. 

I added a little glue to the top of the rim and covered the rim of the bottle in rope, then cut the excess with scissors. 

I used potting soil to plant some easy to care for succulents. Adding moss is optional but I think it looks pretty nice if you have extra room between or around you plants.  

Please stay tuned for my next project when I'll show you how I made a retro plant hanger for these! 

Made with love, 

Enid & Mariner