Wee Crepe Paper Basket Tutorial

http://paperwhimsy.com/blog/?p=689

My supplies: crepe paper, 2″ diameter peat pot (purchased at Meijer), glue gun, a wired swag from Michael’s, crinkled fill, paper flowers, ribbon or trim, scissors.

I trimmed my peat pot to about 2″ tall because I wanted my basket to be more squat than tall.  Then I cut the crepe paper while it was still folded adding an additional 3/4″ making the crepe paper strip 2-3/4″ wide.

This is the trickiest part of the whole construction but once you get the hang of it, it’s a breeze.  I unfolded the strip of crepe paper and stretched it just a bit.  I glue one end of the crepe paper strip to the peat pot using my glue gun (or a very tacky glue that grabs quickly).  I then folded a pleat in the crepe paper strip and ran a bead of glue in the fold to secure it.

Then I flipped the crepe paper strip over and ran a bead of glue under the under-fold to secure it to the pot.  I repeated this process, pleat after pleat, until I used up the entire crepe paper strip.  I had 3 or so layers of pleats when all was said and done but there was a method to this madness.

A Hint: the sides of the pot are not at a 90 degree angle to the base, so to make up for this angle and to keep the pleats fitted to the pot fit the pleat to be flush with the base of the pot, not the top of the pot.  This will make the pleat deeper at the base than at the top and if you even remotely understand what I’m trying to explain here, you’re a freaking genius.

Perhaps you can get an idea of what I’m trying to explain about “fitting the pleats to the bottom of the pot” by looking at this picture.  You can see that the pleats are deeper at the base of the pot than they are at the top of the pot.

In this view you can see that I had two layers of pleats glued around my little pot.  Keep going… you’ll understand why when you see the next picture.

The whole crepe paper strip was pleated and glued around the pot.  I then trimmed about 1/4″ off the bit of crepe paper that extended past the top of the pot and fringed the crepe paper by cutting very narrow slits approx 1/10″ of an inch apart all the way around.

I then ruffled the crepe paper around the top of the pot to give it the appearance of fringe.  The deeper your layer of pleats around your pot, the nicer the fringe effect.  Cool, yeah?  Of course, this was one of those happy moments when a mistake turned into pure gold.

I glued a nice stiff ric-rac trim around the outside of the pot for embellishment as well as to hold the pleats securely in place.  A nice stiff trim, including upholstery/drapery trim, would work very well for this step as opposed to a lighter weight ribbon.

I bought this spring swag stuff at Michael’s having no clear idea of how I was going to use it.  Thankfully, because it is wired, it worked splendidly for the basket handle.  You might also consider using a pipe cleaner or florist’s wire wrapped with a coordinating crepe paper and embellished with tiny flowers or beads, etc.  You can get old-fashioned cotton pipe cleaners at a tobacconist.

I cut two “branches” off the swag and joined them in the center by wrapping them together.  Because these branches are wired, the join held very well.  A tiny dab of glue secured them.

I bent the handle into an arc to fit the basket then inserted each end of the handle between the pot and the crepe paper and glued the ends in place with the glue gun.  And a few little paper flowers to embellish the ribbon for added ooomph (girls love ribbons, girls love flowers, the two together are golden).  Add your crepe paper fill or Easter grass and fill with little treats or chicks or bunnies (or paper fairies).  I think little crepe paper baskets would also be quite cute for Mother’s Day or to celebrate spring/summer if you decorate for the seasons.  And by switching your color palette to orange/black or red/gold/brown, etc, how cute for Hallowe’en or Autumn?    I know.  I’m getting crazy, now, but these little things take less than a half hour to put together and best of all… *I* was able to make them so that’s the “Way Too Easy Seal of Approval”.

Have fun and please do share if you make some.  I’d love to see your baskets.