Reuse A Plastic Bottle To DIY An Adorable Porch Wind Chime

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You can reuse a plastic bottle to DIY an adorable porch wind chime for your home with plenty of visual personality! Instagram user yano4kaa.a showed off the idea with a Japanese-inspired take. It's a quick, simple craft that even those with no DIY chops will be able to master! First, cut an empty plastic bottle in half with a small pair of scissors. Making a small hole, then cutting from there can make it easier. Next, cut off the neck of the bottle, keeping the dome to work with as the body of the chime. Attach a small piece of paper to the top of the dome. Poke a hole in the paper and thread a string through the top of the bottle. A small knot under the paper can prevent the dome and paper from sliding down the string. Attach another piece of decorated paper to the bottom of the string and voila! You have the base for your adorable windchime. 

One major caveat to this DIY is that it's more something to see rather than hear. Depending on how you decorate it, the chime can look great blowing in the wind. But that signature sound that chimes make comes from the plastic or metal parts hitting each other, this simple string and plastic bottle project won't make it. Luckily, these DIY wind chimes can be used for so much more than their sounds. You can use them for great Feng shui and to add some quirky personality to your porch.  

The great thing about reusing plastic bottles for this DIY wind chime project is how personalized you can make yours! Start by using regular magic markers to color the inside of the dome. As the markers' inks are 'wet' when first applied to the plastic, use a piece of paper to smear the ink around the bottle for fuller coverage and to give a translucent look, then let it dry. On the outside of the bottle, use paint markers like the ARTISTRO 36-pack to draw more permanent shapes. The original inspiration features dots to make the dome of the chime look like a strawberry with matching decorated strawberry 'chimes' attached to the string; however, really lean into your own creativity to decide what you want yours to look like. Perhaps you can make a rocket ship and the paper attached to the string can be the smoke plumes, or a pumpkin to subtly embrace the goblincore aesthetic in your own home.

The plastic bottle used for this DIY looks to be about 1 liter, but experiment with different sizes for the style that suits your space best. You can even mix and match sizes to create a small forest of wind chimes based around a color or design theme. Finally, to protect the paper on the bottom of the string from the elements, consider laminating it. This gives the project a level of waterproofness, so you can enjoy the chime for longer.