My Hands' Tale: All bottled up (Gifts in a Recycled Bottle)

Last Christmas, I made this as a gift for the children. Instead of the usual putting-the-candies-or-other-small-stuff-into-their-Santa-stockings... I made use of these plastic bottles lying around waiting for Mister-Recycle-Man to get it from me.

So.. I challenged myself to reuse these bottles for the season of gift giving... and after some google search, I saw some people using plastic bottles to give as a give-away... I made my own version to fit in the Christmas season.
And an added bonus is that I didn't have to break the bank to give these gifts.

Materials/Things you'll need:

plastic bottle (better to use the ones with soft body to make it easier to cut)
cutter/exacto knife (scissors will do but it's quite a challenge to make that first cut)
marker (optional)
candies/chocolates/small gift items (its up to you how inexpensive you like it to be)
fillers (e.g. lucky star origami, confetti, shredded colorful papers/shiny papers, small rolled-up papers)
adhesive tape
art/construction papers (as design)

Step 1

Clean your bottle. Take out the label and make sure the inside is clean and dry.

Step 2

Find a part of the bottle that will serve as its opening. (It's usually the part where it was covered with the label). Using a marker, make a U-shape (make sure its big enough to place your gift items) and cut/slice through it. (In my case, I didn't use any markers and just cut right away). Just make sure to make a clean cut on the edges of your opening. (you can always use a pair of scissors to cut the sides clean to avoid sharp edges).

Step 3

Arrange your small gift items and your fillers. Your fillers will serve as a stabilizer and a design at the top and bottom part of your bottle and it will be the only visible thing from the outside. The small gift items placed at the middle part of the bottle will be covered with your art papers.

A clean cut opening to place in your gift goodies.

Arranging the goodies and fillers inside the bottle.

Step 4

Seal the opening with a tape.

Step 5

Make a design out of your art/construction paper. Make sure that the design is big enough to cover the opening and long enough to go around the bottle. (Use your creativity) And tape it.

Santa Belt design to cover the opening and the goodies inside.

It's long enough to go around the bottle and
big enough to cover the goodies inside.

I added a small Santa Hat on top of the bottle cap
to make it look more festive.
Notice that the fillers are the only visible things in the bottom & top part.
The gift items are covered up and left as a surprise.

Now your bottle gift is ready to be given away. ^_^

Other suggested designs: