Plastic Bottle Crab

Make a 3d crab out of an old bottle

Step 1: Materials

1 plastic bottle (one crab per bottle)
1 pair of scissors or whatever cutting instrument you are comfy with

optional

enamel paint or other pigment that will stick on the plastic

Step 2: Cutting the Eye Stalks

cut off the top of the bottle.
cut a inch and half strip and fold it up..the eye stalks will be cut out of this

Step 3: Cutting Out the Claws and Legs

cut two stips on either side of the first flap.. give them spoon shaped ends(refer to the image) we'll fashion a pair of claws from these

cut as many more flaps as you like for the legs...i prefer six legs, but some like 8...whatever is biologically accurate i guess

Step 4: Eyes, Claws and Legs

cutout the eye stalks...you could stick marbles or buttons on the stalks for eyes i guess

fold the claw-arms so they become more rigid...split the spoon and mke folds like in the image ..this gives you the claws..
the legs are pretty simple..fold fold fold :)

and thats about it.. you can decorate yours with paint and whatever else you like :)
enjoy


dangle this crab under a light or in a window...

Step 5: Paint It Up White

i used acrylic paints, but you could use enamel paint or spray cans too.

1) paint a base coat of white as the primer.. priming the surface ensures that your colours will turn out bright. a common mistake is that people spray on the colours they want.. and then it doesnt quite turn out as bright as they thought it would.

Step 6: Paint Your Colours

once the base paint is dry, go ahead and paint on your colours.
i've hand painted it, so it looks a bit shabby .. for a finer finish i would have used spray cans or an airbrush

Step 7: Stuff Created by Kids

I occasionally do workshops with kids at schools or children's homes, here are some of their creations. sometimes i come up with new stuff like the scorpions you see in these pics

Comments

[KidsCrafts3Sis]

That is so cool!

[chopstx]

Nice, but I like the soda can one better.

[chaitanyak]

me too.. this only looks great once painted. unfortunately i gave away the painted one long ago before taking any pics :( , havnt had the time to do it again. 

[chaitanyak]

also this one is more child friendly :)  (no razor sharp edges)

[chopstx]

Yeah lol.

[mt.+]

this is realy cool no where i could get some paint to paint it??

[chaitanyak]

i've used regular enamel paint... the glossy kind used to paint on wooden doors n stuff you can also use a spraycan for a good finish

[mt.+]

oh, ok thanx

[nagutron]

It would be awesome to see an uncut bottle with all the cut marks drawn on it with a permanent marker. This instructable would be much easier to figure out if you did. That being said, the end product looks great!

[chaitanyak]

yes i think i'l put some diagrams too.

[Lance Mt.]

Please do, i wanna try this

[chaitanyak]

have added diagrams...couldn't figure out how to shoot the lines on the bottle, without making it look too complicated :)

[nagutron]

Hey, those diagrams are great. I'm increasing my rating a bunch!

[Lance Mt.]

Cheers Ill get started

[Lftndbt]

That is REALLY good! Keep going with him and add more angles/folds to create even more of a 3D effect. Those claws would look even more impressive, with two more folds down the middle of them so you could give them a real curvature.

[chaitanyak]

thanks for the tips, will work on it :)

[Lftndbt]

Don't get me wrong , he is AWESOME!! Prior to you posting this I had an Octopus, all ready to go. I should post that I'ble and we could have a little under water party.

[chaitanyak]

i almost turned i into a jelly fish, with thinner strips.. octopus sounds good...put it up quickly :) and if you can get your hands on a bunch of bottlecaps or toothpaste tube caps, you could use them as suckers for the tentacles :)

[chaitanyak]

ya think i'll do that.. seems too flat right now..