I love these baskets…they are easy and the results are beautiful. They almost look hand-painted. Really! They are fun for Easter and can be reused to deliver a fun flower gift for May Day. You can also use them to display any number of things. They can be a bit fragile, so I wouldn’t recommend letting your toddler use them for an Easter egg hunt. However, your toddler might enjoy making one…and they are cheap so if they want to use it, let them.
1. Gather supplies:
-basket:
Tips—a great place to buy napkins is thrift stores…I got this one for $1. f you are using a napkin with a light-colored background, then use a lighter colored basket.
-paper napkins:
Tips—you can find beautiful napkins at gift stores, like Hallmark, or your local Target. I found mine at Ikea. The baskets will look better if you choose a napkin with a random pattern, rather than a repeating pattern that needs to be lined up, like stripes or checks.
-Mod Podge:
Tip—Mod Podge comes in matte or gloss. I used gloss because that was what I had at home.
-sponge brush & scissors
-a ruler if you want to measure accurately…I usually don’t
2. Take a napkin and separate the two pieces by pulling them apart at a corner. Discard the plain piece.
3. Lay the basket on the napkin and cut around the basket…leave a little bit extra to wrap to the inside and around the bottom. The amount you cut from the napkin will obviously depend on the size of your napkins and your basket. Basically, you are just getting some pieces ready that you can glue and wrap to the basket. Don’t worry about lines or matching patterns…unless you want to.
4. Brush Mod Podge onto the basket, working in small sections.
5. Lay napkin onto the Mod Podged area of the basket and smooth down with fingers. Make sure you smooth the edges of the napkin really well so that they will adhere properly to the basket.
6. Very carefully, brush Mod Podge onto the napkin-covered area of the basket. Go slowly so that you don’t tear the napkin.
7. Continue brushing on Mod Podge, adding napkins, smoothing, and brushing again. You will probably need to crease the napkin in some places to fit it around the basket. Go ahead and crease away because the creases do not show once they are covered with Mod Podge.
8. Inevitably your fingers will stick to the napkin and tear it. It is easy to repair a tear. While the Mod Podge is still wet, cut a small piece of napkin, put it over the hole, and brush some Mod Podge over the top of the patch. Make sure you smooth the edges with your fingers. If it is important to you, you can try to cut your patch to match the pattern of the napkin…obviously it wasn’t important to me.
9. Let the basket dry and then decide if you want to cover the inside as well. If you do, remember that because a basket has little holes all over it, some of the Mod Podge might seep to the outside. Just check your basket and if it does seep, just smooth it out with your finger or a brush so that you don’t have little drips…unless you like little drips, then let them drip away. No picture because I didn’t cover the inside. It is getting covered with fun basket fillers.
10. When the entire basket is completely dry, fill it up with whatever you want. I chose blue Easter grass and shiny gold eggs.
Here is a more more traditional Easter-looking basket. I only covered the sides because I really liked the pickling on the wicker.
Aren’t they pretty. I think they look like something right out of a Monet-inspired Easter egg hunt. Monet would probably not agree. What do you think?
I think this sounds like an ad for Mod Podge. What do you think?
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