Kids love Easter baskets and look forward to the goodies and treats, whether they still believe the Easter bunny left them or not. Store-bought baskets have their place — in a pinch, many a parent has resorted to the plastic baskets — but if you have the time, why not make some homemade, unique Easter baskets for your little ones this year? The memory of your thoughtfulness will outlast all the candy and bunnies of childhood. Here are 8 ideas for you to try!
1. Fabric Easter basket
Is sewing your bag? Here’s your basket. Moda Bake Shop’s “honey buns” make these Easter baskets look as a sweet as they sound.
Honey buns are made from long, thin strips of coordinating fabric, which you can sew together to make some of the cutest patchwork quilting pieces you’ll ever see, from pillowcases to teapot coozies. If you don’t have a honey bun, you can make your own version from strips of fabric. You will need 40 of them, 1-1/2 inches by 44 inches each.
You’ll thread cotton filler cord through honey bun fabric you’ve sewn together, and then snake and coil it around as you sew sections together every so often. You’ll end up with a bowl. The handle is made in much the same way, but with thinner cording.
Really, your imagination is the only limit with how you customize your basket. If you use your own fabric strips, you can choose a solid color for each basket — a color for each child. Instead of cording the handle, try ribbon stiffened with Mod Podge. Sew or glue fabric or felt shapes onto the outside of the basket.
These soft baskets are wonderfully functional and make a perfect first Easter basket for toddlers. No matter how you do it, this fabric Easter basket makes a beautiful keepsake that can be used year after year.
2. Craft-stick Easter basket
Now you can finally put that basketweaving elective from your undergraduate degree to use! Popsicle sticks and a hot glue gun make basket magic happen.
The familiar craft stick has been around for at least a hundred years. Doctors used them to look down patients’ throats back in the day — but it was 11-year-old Frank Epperson who made them ubiquitous. The boy accidentally left a sweet drink outside overnight, and it froze in the cup, with the stirring stick still in it. That gave young Frank the idea to make “Eppsicles” — frozen fruit pops — which he sold at a park in Alameda, CA. Later on, his kids persuaded him to change the name to Pop’s Sicles, and the rest is history. Nowadays, two billion of them are sold every year; that’s a lot of leftover craft sticks.
All you need are a few, plus a glue gun, ribbon and other rick-rack. Glue the craft sticks together in a woven pattern, and then interlace it with ribbon. Glue some decorations onto the outside of the basket, and you have a one-of-a-kind Easter basket for a one-of-a-kind kid.
This craft-stick Easter basket is a good activity for older kids who can handle a glue gun. Younger kids can pick out decorations and add them to the outside of the basket. For the very young, stickers are ideal.
You can thread vines or flower stems through the basketweave, or twist them around floral cording to make a handle. You can even paint the body of the basket — a great way to differentiate baskets among the kids.
3. DIY string Easter basket
Make this DIY string Easter basket a family tradition with just a few everyday items: a balloon, three skeins of yarn, ribbon, decorations and glitter. Bear in mind that your basket will take a couple days to dry.
This is pretty simple to make. Start by blowing up the balloon to the size you’d like your basket to be. Tie a string to the end of the balloon, and then wrap the string with all three skeins of yarn to completely cover the balloon. (Kids can help with this step!)
Then, roll the balloon around in sugar water, which acts as a glue. When the balloon is almost dry, press it down to form a bottom, carefully pop the balloon, and form a wide handle as you cut away the hardened yarn. Be careful not to cut too much, or your handle will break.
Decorate your handle with multiple kinds of coordinating ribbon to create a layer-cake effect. Wrap the body of your basket with the ribbon, fill with it cellophane, and perch a couple decorations on the rim.
You can personalize your basket in any way you’d like. You can also use blue or green yarn, some grosgrain ribbon, and plastic farm animals or dinosaurs. If your child or teen is a sports fan, use ribbon and decorations to match a favorite team’s colors and mascot. Whatever final touches you add, you’ll wind up with a sweet container for the sweet treats of Easter.
