Woven Paper Basket

Hello there! This morning as I was taking out the recycling and I saw a pile of ads and old magazines so obviously, I had to do something crafty with them! I'm sure you all get newspapers, magazines, catalogs and ads of some sort mailed to you, so you basically already have the materials to do this project. I'm going to try and think of more alternative uses for all of this paper, but today we can just focus on making a Woven Paper Basket.


Materials:
- Paper (I used magazine pages because I like the color, but you can use any kind of paper! Keep in mind that newspaper might get ink everywhere!)
- Adhesive: Glue, double sided tape etc. (stapler would work too)
- Scissors

*I used double sided tape for this project and in the steps I'll say "tape" but you can substitute whatever you decided to use.*

<---- This is how mine turned out! ^.^


Steps:

1. Fold your paper into strips. The more times you fold it, the sturdier it will be but keep in mind it won't as easy to bend. I used about 18 pages, and each was folded in half 3 times into 1 inch strips.  


2. Take two of your folded strips and tape them together so that they are perpendicular to each other like picture below. Now you can start weaving, alternating strips from going over and under each other. On these earlier strips, I taped each one down, but later they end up fitting each other well and you won't have to use as much tape. At this point just build the base of you basket, the bottom of mine was 5x5 strips.

3. When you want to start building up the sides of your basket, start by folding up the sides of your existing strips. Then weave the strips in to make the sides of your basket vertically. This part was pretty hard for me! You'll probably have to use multiple strips for each layer on the sides, and plenty of tape.

4. Now you're pretty much done and you can clearly see the shape of your basket. I added a trim to the rim of my basket. First, cut of the tops of the strips to that they're all even. I even taped some of the ones that stuck out to make it easier to work with. Take another strip (or 2 ) and carefully wrap it over the top of your basket, taping as you go along. It gets tricky in the corners but try your best to keep it smooth. And..... Now you're done!

What I've learned:

- Make sure you check that you didn't miss a "stitch", and by that I mean one of my strips was under when it was supposed to go over another. Which brings me to my next tip...
- Don't tape without double checking!
- If some strips like the ones used for making the sides aren't long enough, cut smaller strips and attach them one inside the other to make it look more seamless.
- For the trim of your basket, instead of using another strip (that has been folded many times and isn't very bendable), just cut a long piece of whatever paper you were using to put along the rim of your basket. It will probably be a lot easier to work with!

This DIY project was a little frustrating for me at times (tape everywhere, sticking to everything)... but I'm so happy with the outcome of my basket and the fact that its recycled! It would be really cute to have a couple of them on a bookshelf, especially if you have different sizes. Hmmm, maybe I'll do that!

Did you like this project? Are you going to try it? Let me know! :)


Alison