Gifts packed in reed and wicker baskets look really attractive. Instead of buying these baskets from the market, you can also use a homemade basket to pack your gift, in order to give a personal touch to it. Recycled paper baskets are quite simple to make and you don’t require any expensive supplies to create them. These lovely baskets can also be used as a decoration piece or for storage purposes.
Materials Required for Making Recycled Paper Baskets
- Old newspapers, comics or magazines
- Glue
- Craft paints
- Paint brush
- Scissors
- Tape
- Some medium weight florist’s wires
Instructions to Weave Recycled Paper Baskets
Step 1: Cut out newspaper into eight rectangular pieces measuring 13 1\2”x 22” and four rectangular pieces measuring 11”x 27”. Tightly roll these pieces into a tube, along their longer edge, around equal lengths’ of florist’s wire. Flatten the pieces and secure the open edges with glue.
Step 2: Lay four 22” pieces side by side and weave the other four 22” pieces into them. Position these in the centre. This will form the bottom of your basket. Fold the unwoven ends of the paper reeds up, to form the side spokes.
Step 3: Take one 27” long paper reed and tape its end to the base of a spoke. Now weave it in and out of the side spokes, all around the basket. Tuck its other end behind the spoke. Using the same method weave the remaining three paper reeds as well.
Step 4: In the end fold the tops of the spokes into the basket and tuck them behind a reed.
Step 5: Now paint the basket from inside and out using craft paints or spray paints. You can also embellish the basket with beads, lace, ribbons, shells etc to enhance its appearance. Read about these following Baskets are :
