Fancy Foil Fish

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Aluminum pie pans and take-out containers can make great items for recycling into a shiny mobile of colorful tropical fish

By Laura C. Martin

You Will Need:

• Colouring book with pictures of fish or scrap paper for drawing fish
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Tape
• Several clean, used aluminum pie pans or aluminum take-out containers for the fish
• Small aluminum pie plate for the top of the mobile
• Permanent colored markers
• Googley eyes (optional)
• White glue (optional)
• 6 to 8 small binder clips or paper clips
• Clear fishing line
• Push pin or tack

Instructions:

1. Cut out several different fish shapes from the coloring book; or draw your own fish on scrap paper and cut them out.

2. Trace around the patterns with a pencil onto the aluminum containers and cut out a bunch of aluminum fish (you’ll need at least 8 to 10).

3. Color each fish any way you like with the permanent colored markers. Then, either draw on eyes or glue on googley eyes. Let the glue dry completely.

4. Turn the small aluminum pie plate upside down and attach the binder clips or paper clips evenly spaced around the rim, as shown.

5. For a hanger, thread a piece of string through the upper loops of two opposite clips and knot the ends together. Then hang the pie plate from a hook so it will be easier to attach the
fish.

6. Use the pushpin or tack to make a small hole through the top of each fish about halfway between the nose and the tail. Make another hole through the bottom directly below the first hole.

7. Next, tie one end of a piece of fishing line to a small nut or washer (this will help to weigh the string down a bit). String on one or more fish, threading the line first through the bottom hole and then the top hole in each one.

8. Tie the top of the line to one of the clips on the pie plate. Attach a string of fish to each of the clips and watch as the school starts swimming through the air. 

Excerpted from Recycled Crafts Box: Sock Puppets, cardboard castles, bottle bugs & 37 more earth-friendly projects & activities you can create.  Copyright (c) 2004 by Laura C. Martin. Excerpted with permission of Storey Publishing.