Introduction: Rudolph, the Lighted Bottle Reindeer

Another plastic bottle reuse project. Especially for decoration purposes it's nice to reuse waste materials in stead of buying expensive objects that have no other use than pleasing the eye for a few weeks. You could spend half a month wages on Christmas decorations or you could be creative from scrap. And may be spend some of the saved money to better use. After all, Christmas....

Step 1: What You Need

Your tools are simple:
Little hacksaw, scissors, awl, may be a revolver rod, felt tip pen.

Your materials even simpler:
two empty plastic detergent (dish wash) bottles
One big detergent bootle (clothes)
two tie-wraps

And a string of christmas lights (led) from last year, to be reused in another creative way next year. Mine is 40 leds long

Step 2: The Head

draw the shape as shown in the picture. Be sure to leave a little piece of the neck of the bottle.
I started with my hacksaw at the neck of the bottle and cut the rest with a pair of scissors

Step 3: Antlers

Again draw the shape as shown in the picture and cut out with your scissors. Both antlers stay connected for about 8 cm along the bottom side.

Step 4: Connect Antlers to Head

Punch corresponding holes in the two parts. Thread trough a tie-wrap, pull tight.

Step 5: The Body

For the body I used a big bottle with handle. Take away the cap and remove the rim with the hacksaw. The bottle must not roll over when laying on its side. So, I cut off a piece from the long side and made sure the bottle could stand on that rim.

Step 6: Connect Body and Head

In fact it's only applying the second tie-wrap. So punch corresponding holes. But...!
I made a bigger hole in head and body part wich cannot be seen when head and body are attached together. This allows me to pull a section of the Christmas-light string through the body into the head.

Step 7: Apply Lights

what is there to explain? Bundle up your light string and pull a few light into the head. I wrapped them around the "tail"of the tie-wrap to prevent them dropping out. Place your reindeer wherever seems nice. Use outdoor lights when placing outside!

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