DIY Airplane Bowling Pins

WHAT to use

• 5 Perrier bottles stripped of their labels (any empty plastic bottle will work well)
• Blue and white acrylic paint
• Paint brushes
• Wine cork
• Cardboard
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Lacquer (optional)
• Rice/ lentils/ water to keep bottles from toppling over easily
• Ball of your choice

What to Do

If you’re using clear bottles then, you don’t have to paint the outside of the bottles as we did. Squirt about a tablespoon worth of white paint into each bottle, tighten the lid, and shake them until the bottles are covered from the inside with paint. Then, unscrew cap to let dry.

You may need to shake each bottle a couple of times while they are drying as paint will pool towards the bottom. If you choose this method, put the rice/ lentils in to weight your bottles down in after the paint has fully dried.

If using coloured bottles before painting, start by filling about 1/8 – 1/4 full of water, lentils, rice or any other medium to give the bottoms weight. This prevents them from being blown over easily. Then, move on to cutting out the cardboard wings and tails.

For the wings, download this free printable to trace out two wings for each bottle.

If you don’t have a printer, take your ruler, I marked 2.25 inches along the width of the cardboard and then drew a 4-inch line perpendicular from one of the ends of the 2.25-inch line. At the end of that line, I marked 1.5 inches which ran parallel to the 2.25-inch line. Then, I connected the other ends of the line using a ruler. I cut this first wing out and then traced it nice times, making a total of 10 wings.

To make the tail, use this printable. Trace it twice using one whole one for the bottom of the tail, cutting the second in half for the top of the tail.

If you don’t have a printer, trace a rectangle 2 inches wide, 1 inch thick and rounded the top two edges. I traced this 8 times and then cut 3 of them in half.  glue gunned the wings to the bottles and glued the 1/2 pieces of cardboard to the middle of the full pieces, affixing them perpendicularly. Then both my daughter and I took to painting the bottles.

Glue gun the wings and tail to the bottles. Glue the 1/2 pieces of cardboard to the middle of the full pieces, affixing them perpendicularly.

Paint bottles (if not already painted) and paint wings.
Once the white paint has dried, dip wine corks into blue paint and then stamped them where the windows should be.

Once dried, option to spray with lacquer. This gives them a nicer finish and also maintains the paint better.

If you try this, be sure to tag me on Instagram or Twitter @ParentfromHeart. I would love to see your creations and variations!

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