Fantastic Plastic Artwork

Here's what you need:

1/3 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin mix
Small mixing bowl
Fork
5-10 drops food coloring (optional)
Spoon
Large plastic margarine container
Dull knife
Cookie cutter or safety scissors
Drinking straw and thread or string (optional)
Wax paper

Here's how you make it:

1. Ask a grownup to help you mix the boiling water and gelatin mix in the bowl, stirring the mixture briskly with a fork until the gelatin mix dissolves. If you want coloured plastic, add the food colouring to the boiling water before you combine the water with the gelatin mix. To make the plastic softer, add more water to the gelatin mix. To make it harder, add less water.

2. Use the spoon to scoop out any lumps or pop any bubbles in the mixture.

3. Pour the mixture into the margarine container.

4. Let the plastic air-dry overnight at room temperature. Do not cover it.

5. The next day, carefully remove the plastic from the margarine container using a dull knife.

Here's how you use it:

1. Cut a shape from your plastic with a cookie cutter or safety scissors. If you want to hang your creation, use a drinking straw to poke a hole at the top of the creation. When the plastic has hardened, loop a string or ribbon through the hole and tie the ends together.

2. Set the creation aside to further harden on a sheet of wax paper. This should take anywhere from 3 days to 1 week.

Here's how you store it:

This mixture should be used up immediately after you make it. It does not store well. Put any leftover mixture in a plastic bag, then toss the bag into the garbage.

Variation:

To give your plastic extra sparkle, stir 1/4 teaspoon of glitter or 1/2 teaspoon of metallic confetti into the mixture immediately after you pour it into the margarine container.

Excerpted from Crafty Concoctions by Sue Hannah. Copyright 2003 by Sue Hannah. Excerpted with permission by Meadowbrook Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted with our permission in writing from the publisher.