2-Liter {Bottle} Tropical Fish

The summer camp my son attended made these and while he wasn't signed up for the particular "recycled art" workshop, when I saw them, I knew he'd love it.

This is a simple craft with minimal supplies.

1 clear, clean 2-liter soda bottle

2 dot stickers (like you'd use for garage sale pricing)

Acrylic craft paint in whatever colors you please

black construction paper

exacto craft knife

hole punch

paint brushes, sponge brushes, etc.

permanent marker

scissors

stapler

(and anything else to decorate your fish like glitter, tissue paper, fabric, sequins, etc.!)

Before we made our 2-liter tropical fish, we read about the coral reef, where so many brightly colored fish reside.

Having admired some of the strange and beautiful creatures of the reef through Sylvia Earle's book, we got busy crafting our own tropical fish.

I cut out the tail-fin pattern I'd made. Download it here.

Next, my son wrapped it around the bottle, secured it in place, and began tracing around the edge of the template with a permanent marker.

Now, he handed the bottle to me and with an exacto craft knife and scissors, I carefully cut along the lines he'd drawn.

Before things got messy with paints, he paper punched two black dots from the construction paper. He placed it in the middle of the sticky side of each dot sticker, and adhered the stickers (our fish's eyes) on the inside of the bottle.

Paint brushes came out and the inside of the bottle was lightly coated in an array of red, yellow, and lime green.

My son couldn't wait for it to dry. So we pinched the tail together and added a staple to make our fish's body more flat.

Isn't the final result awesome? If we drank more soda, we'd have a sea full of these at our house!