Toy's Haven

Good Morning!

Mandy at Limelight Papercrafts is at it again!   She has challenged the design team to come up with an Easter Basket and tutorial for today’s post.    Ok, so she did give us some notice on this and I *knew* right away what I wanted to do.

Back when I was a kid, we use to make these baskets for Easter with woven paper and ribbons.   I asked my aunts if they could remember how we did them and they came up blank, so I started from scratch.     Can’t be too hard, right?  Right!!   It was actually pretty darn easy!

~~ Remember!  All pictures are CLICKABLE to see a larger version 🙂  ~~

Here is what you will need:

6 strips of cardstock measuring 1/2″ x 9″

3 strips of patterned paper measuring 1/2″ x 12″

1 strip of cardstock (coordinating color) measuring 9″ x 1/2″ (for handle)

sticky strip

scoring blade

scotch tape

ribbon

other items to decorate your basket.

Ok, for the first step, you will take each 1/2″ x 9″ strip of cardstock and score it at 1″, 3″, 6″ & 8″

Fold them up at the 3″ and 6″ score marks so they look like this:

Place a small piece of sticky tape in the center of your first piece.   Place a second strip crossways (90 degree angle) on top of that.  You have created a cross.    Do that with the remaining four strips so that you have THREE crosses like so:

Now you are going to layer them on top of each other to create your basket.    Place a small piece of sticky strip in the middle of the first cross.   Layer on your second cross and third cross (sticky strip between each layer) so that you have this:

Ok, now on to weaving.    Take a piece of your 1/2″ x 12″ patterned paper and place a small piece of  sticky strip on the end.    Attach it to the INSIDE of one of your basket “posts” and then weave it in and out of the basket until the ends meet.   ***You will need to pull the strip tight and make sure your strip is snug against the bottom of your basket**   Continue this process with the two remaining pieces of patterened paper.

Now, what about those 1″ tabs at the top?!   Ok, those are going to be used to strengthen your creation.   Taking every other one, you will bend either IN towards the middle or OUT towards the outside of your basket.    Each tab will need a small piece of sticky strip to hold it in place.    I do the inside ones first, leaving the outside ones unattached until I add my ribbon.   That also helps secure the ribbon in place!

To add the handle… punch holes in the side of the basket with a hole punch and then punch holes in your handle and attach with brads.   Another option that would be awesome is to sew the handle on with buttons!    I wanted to do that with mine, but did not have two matching buttons in the colors I needed :(.

Now you can decorate your basket!

For mine, I created a little arched greeting to span the handle, popped on this adorable little chickie from Stampendous Chick Ears set (Limelight Papercrafts) and added some yummy pink tulle to the inside with even yummier chocolate eggs!

For the other Six Chicks projects see their blogs here:

Lisa Henke

Amy Castellano

Becky Carafa

Lorie Ames

Lee Murphy

Jennifer Taylor

Ryann Salamon

Mandy Cheshire

Deets on my supplies:

Stamps:  Chick Ears by Stampendous (Limelight Papercrafts); Sentiment by Stampendous (Limelight Papercrafts)

Colors:  Lovely Lilac and Reminisce Easter dp

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black, copics

Accessories: brads, Lavendar/Pink Sheer Ribbon (Limelight Papercrafts); Fun Flock, stickles, dimensionals, circle punch, scissors, sticky tape, scoring blade

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Oh!  And if you haven’t checked out Limelight Papercrafts, you really should!    Mandy has a great variety of products to offer and she is such a sweetheart.   Her shipping is lightning fast, too!

And here is a little Quote from Mandy:

With each and every order (regardless of amount) through Easter Sunday, Limelight will be sending out a plastic Easter egg filled with goodies! They could be filled with ribbon, stickers, Cat’s Eye ink pads, small stamps, buttons, Dew Drops, Shimmerz, and more! A few will have some “big prizes” written on slips of paper! There will be no rhyme or reason to which egg goes in an order. We’ll keep it as random as humanly possible!

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Was that fun?!   Now go make yours :)~

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!!

~~ Holly ~~