Melted Plastic Cup Ornaments

Have you ever watched plastic cups melt in the oven with your kids? We tried it this Fall when we made our Melted Pumpkins and it’s sooo much fun! I had some cups left over from our holiday festivities last month so we decided to use them to make Melted Plastic Cup Ornaments. Your kids will love personalizing them for your Christmas Tree.

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Supplies you will need:

plastic cups (I used Hefty Brand 18 oz)
shallow baking dish
parchment paper or silicone baking mat
oven
scissors
hole punch
ribbon
permanent metallic markers

Directions:

1. Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the top rim off of your cup and place it on a shallow baking dish lined with parchment paper or a baking mat. I melted two cups at a time.

2. Place your baking sheet in the oven. (Make sure your kids are looking through your oven window to watch this awesome part!) You will have to watch them closely because they melt fast. I cooked mine for 45 seconds, but depending on your oven they may need to cook for 1-2 minutes. As a side note, my orange cups took 90 seconds to cook, but I found the blue and purple cups melted faster. So you might have to do a little trial as you do this.

3. Once your cups have melted flat remove them from your oven. Some of mine curled slightly so as soon as I removed them from the oven I used my metal spatula to press on them lightly to uncurl them and flatten them out as best I could. You only have a window of about 10 seconds to do this so you must work fast!

4. They only take about a minute to cool down once you remove them from the oven. I used a hole punch to punch a hole at the top of them. They are little thick for the hole punch, but I still managed to get it to work.

5. Decorate your ornaments with permanent metallic markers. This was my kids’ favorite part. They got to personalize them exactly how they wanted. Once you are finished decorating your ornament string a piece of ribbon through your hole and tie a knot. Now they are ready to hang on your Christmas tree.