All my eggs in one basket

Hello everyone, I hope you are all well and looking forward to a pleasant Easter weekend. I have just typed out my whole blog post, inserted all the photos and then managed to make the entire thing disappear! So this is my second attempt.  I don't make many Easter projects, just a couple of things for challenges, and that is how I came to make this Easter basket. My friend Sheila (Docrafters may know her as DippyDog) challenged a few of us to make a basket, and I used Lena Katrina's tutorial over at Just Magnolia as my guide.  I have to say that although it is not the type of thing I'd usually choose to make, it was really enjoyable and then of course there was the fun of decorating it. 

It took a whole sheet of 12x12 double-sided paper to make the base and the handle, so no wastage. It was all cut up into 2cm strips which were inked at the edges and then woven together. I used an image of Tilda that I'd coloured up last year, added some punched border strips, ribbon, seam binding, leaf diecuts, scalloped circle, lots of pearls and flowers that picked up the colours from the paper. Although there is no pink in the paper, I inserted a pink napkin into the basket simply because it was a pretty spring-like colour and then happily realised it matched the pinks in the sugar-coated eggs. They were purchased specially for the photo, so now I get to enjoy them as a treat!

Also used in the basket are some recycled bits....the rose leaf diecuts were made from some of that card that you get between sheets of NCR paper to prevent the writing from marking too many sheets. And all the white punched borders were made from some letterhead notepaper that a company was throwing away (shock! boxes of them chucked in the bin when the company went bust). It's textured and pretty and I use it a lot in cardmaking.

I couldn't decide which photos to use, so I've include ones of every side. Hope you like it.





  

The opposite side looks the same as this one




The inside of the basket showing the pattern on the other side of the paper



Image: Magnolia Wrapped Up Tilda (with her bow cut off)

DP: K&Co

Flowers: Wild Orchid, Prima

Magnolia Doohickey rose leaf die

This is being entered into these challenges:

2 Sisters - Bingo (I've gone for Ribbons, Pearls and Flowers)

Kaboodle Doodles - Thoughts of Spring/Easter

Lexi's Creations - Anything But a Card

Creative Card Crew - Recycle Something

Top Tip Tuesday - Open Challenge

Try It On Tuesday - A bit of upcycling

Belli Challenge - Eggs/Bunnies (my old forgotten item is the ribbon, for which I had to search through boxes until I found something in the right shade of green. A happy find because it's silky and so pretty)

Penny's Challenges - Easter

C.R.A.F.T.. - Flowers

Cute Card Thursday - No Text

Moving Along With The Times - Recycle

Pile It On - Smells like Rubber

Magnolia Down Under - Easter challenge

Wishing you all a peaceful and happy Easter.

Happy crafting!

Carole x