DIY Upcycled Easter Baskets
A trio of upcycled Easter baskets
Celebrate Easter plastic-free this year. Whip up a handwoven basket using repurposed, recycled, or up-cycled paper, the result of a little effort is crafted touch that makes for a gorgeous display for your Easter goodies. And it's eco-friendly, to boot!
Keeping with the plastic-free theme, we shredded our own paper for fill (Wrappily works great, but any colorful newsprint will do) and, as always, we will be opting for real eggs to hide. For a touch of nostalgic charm, visit your local antique or pawn shop to look for vintage bunnies, chicks or Easter memorabilia. It'll become a timely mark of spring when these cute little friends come for their annual visit.
We searched dozens of tutorials and are sharing our favorites below. We tried each and included our comments and modifications. What's great about learning to make these baskets, is that you'll get faster with each one you weave. Next thing you know, you'll be finding all sorts of uses for these craftily clever containers.
Enjoy your crafting and Happy Easter!
Basic Woven Basket
About as simple as it gets, this versatile basic woven basket can be used as a fruit bowl, plant holder, or gift basket. Embellish with a bow or paper flower, or enjoy in it's simplicity. Find the tutorial here.
Our modification: We added an extra bit of detail by running each weaver strip through a sewing machine set on a wide zigzag stitch. Nice touch, don't ya' think?
Difficulty score: 2. We completed this basket in under an hour.
Accented Kraft Paper Basket (with handle)
Big enough to fill with goodies or take on an egg hunt, this accented kraft paper basket comes together quickly using a brown paper grocery bag. This easy-to-follow tutorial includes instructions for a handle (we have to admit, we glued ours on to save time!)
Our modification: We accented our basket with Wrappily for a pop of spring color. Using the tutorial mentioned above, replace the lengthened strips in Step 6 with Wrappily and only make 12 paper bag strips. Cut Wrappily sheet across the short way and prepare them the same way as the paper bag strips.
Difficulty score: 3, approximately an hour and a half to complete.
Zig-zag Edge Basket
This tutorial offers directions to make a surprisingly sturdy basket out of anything from road maps to the Sunday Funnies. We chose Wrappily because we thought our reversible patterns would really shine here.
Our modification: Because we have Easter on our minds, as an addendum to the tutorial we fashioned a simple braided handle by leaving three weavers sticking up on both sides instead of folding them all over. After finishing the rest of the basket, braid these together on each side and then weave the two braids into one another at the length you like.
Difficulty score: 4. This basket was trickier to weave and took us about 3 hours to complete. Tip: start each corner triangle the same (either right-over-left or vise versa). Be consistent or your weavers won't match up, we learned that the hard way.