One of the craftysisters was born, many years ago (ahem!, you know who you are) on Easter weekend. The three oldest kids, me included, stayed the weekend at different relatives–and we each received very different Easter baskets. Among other things, these Easter baskets were store bought, wrapped in cellophane and full of fancy chocolate bunnies. But my mom had other ideas. In addition to the generous baskets from assorted aunts and uncles, we came home to plastic fireman’s hats filled with Easter grass and candy. As I recall, that was the start of my mom’s quest to find unusual Easter baskets, and it is possible I’m both collapsing and distorting history, but well, that’s how I remember it. Thereafter our Easter baskets were never the same –one year Mom and Dad painted and decorated coffee cans and turned them into banks; another year, we got beach pails. I’m pretty sure L’eggs plastic eggs and strawberry baskets had their day as well. Today, my mom still makes little Easter things for all the kids and grandkids, and you never quite know what the inspiration or the outcome will be.
That kind of Easter basket resilience comes in handy now, when you can’t just run out to the store for last minute items. Covid-19 has reshaped the world, and this will be a somber holiday season, but if you have little ones at home, or are still a kid at heart, a quick little Easter basket can bring joy to someone’s day. Here are 4 Fast and Furious baskets for you to make for Easter, May Day, or just because.
- The Take Out Basket. This is simple enough. Take any of the rapidly multiplying takeout containers you have in your kitchen right now (I’m partial to the black plastic/clear top rectangles and soup containers) and make it a basket pronto. With sharp scissors or a screwdriver, poke two holes on opposite sides of the container and insert wired ribbon, a pipe cleaner or even fabric strips through one hole, looping over the container and back through the other hole. No plastic grass? Shred a few colored plastic newspaper bags.
The Deli Delight. Whole Foods takeout containers of any size can be used for basket number one, but you can also have some fun decorating one of the 16 oz size containers. I used washi tape, but this plastic does well with sharpies, so you can also draw your own designs. For fun, I made the handle out of the lid, carefully cutting along the inside edge, stopping about a quarter inch from the middle and picking the cut back up on the other side of the lid, being careful, of course to leave space at the opposite end as well. Repeat your cut about 1/2 inch in from the first cut, but this time as you approach the middle, turn your scissors at a right angle, cutting across the middle until you have cut out a 1/2 circle. Repeat and bring your two handles up and together, wrap with ribbon or yarn.
The berry little basket. Plastic berry containers, whether they are clear or woven still make sweet baskets. You can cut a cardstock handle, carefully tape it inside the basket and place crumpled tissue paper inside
The Glamour Bag. This isn’t particularly glamorous, but I learned how to make this years ago from an article about giftwrapping in Glamour magazine! You can make a useful little gift bag out of any lightweight paper. Good to know all year round: A.start with a rectangular piece of paper (my example is the standard 8 1/2 x 11 sheet and gently fold the long sides towards each other. Rather than letting the edges meet, bring one edge about 1/4 to 1/2″ from the other edge and make a sharp crease. at the fold 
B. Pick up the wider edge and fold it back over the edge, crease, and then glue or tape the edge together. You now have a sleeve. 
C. Make a fold in your sleeve about 1/3 of the way up, lift up the bottom and then flatten both sides, making a square of two triangles.
D. Bring the point of the two triangles together, and secure the ends with glue or tape (the heavier your paper the more you need to make sure that you give it a good going over with adhesive.
E. Gently open your bag, fill, and then bend the top edge over, securing with stickers, tape, or a pretty cutout of flowers from a magazine.
There you go. You are done. Now you just have to hope you haven’t eaten the emergency stash of chocolate you squirreled away!
thecraftylawyer 