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Hunting for good ways to reuse empty potato chip bags? Here’s the perfect chip bag crafts project for you! Make fabulous a tote bag out of snack packaging and a mylar balloon. Not only is it a fun and easy DIY project, but it’s also a great way to reduce your environmental impact and keep those plastic bags out of landfills and oceans.

This tote bag is special because it’s made from potato chip bags, and one other unlikely material — a Mylar balloon.

Once the yellow bands were a bright smiley-face balloon. It was a get-well wish when a friend broke her ankle. Sadly, it deflated. But now it has a new life in a tote bag that’s sturdy enough for groceries.

When you show off your hand-woven tote, anyone will be delighted by its unique and colorful appearance. The colors and pattern are eye-catching, and make shopping more fun.

But what really makes this tote bag special is the bright yellow contrast against the blue and white stripes. Once someone learns it’s a chip bag crafts project, they will be even more surprised and impressed by your creativity as the maker.

The challenge of working with Mylar is getting it to form a reed-like strip. It doesn’t self-seal with the heat of a household iron. So you’ll need to add a layer of plastic, like from a cereal bag or cling film, to get it to hold together when you wrap it into a uniform strip.

To make a strip of Mylar balloon adhere to itself, you need to use another strip of plastic that sticks to itself with the help of an and an iron. If you’re game, you can follow these steps:

1. Cut a Mylar balloon into strips, approximately 2-inches wide
2. Cut plastic bag such as a cereal bag that is slightly narrower than the Mylar strip. This will serve as a backing for the Mylar strip.
3. Place the plastic strip on a flat surface (like a wooden board) as a firm surface for ironing, and place the Mylar strip on top of it. Place the shiny side facing down, and the color you want to see facing up.
4. Press the Mylar and plastic together.
5. Wrap the Mylar and plastic fusion in a spiral around a cardboard or wooden strip, to form an even reed. Ensure the edges overlap securely and there are no gaps.
6. Iron the wrapped area to fuse into a strip that holds together. Slide the cardboard or wood form out of the end where the unfused strip joins your fused strip, and keep wrapping and ironing to form a continuous strip.
7. Once you have the desired length, go over the reed once more with the iron to secure everything in place.

Your Mylar reed is now ready for the creative projects you will make.