Sussex Exclusive Magazine. Issue 7

I
have a penchant for both hot
beverages and travel mugs and can’t
even start my car engine unless there
is a nice cup of tea in the dashboard
mug holder. However from time
to time I do end up buying the odd
takeaway coffee, so who would guess that
these little dinky Easter baskets are made
from the paper cups that subsequently
end up on the floor of my car? Whether
hidden in the garden by the Easter bunny
or used as table settings for your special
lunch, they look adorable filled with
moss and tiny treats.
Easy to Make
Easter Baskets
Make these simple Easter decorations with the feelgood factor,
from Becci Combe of Hygge Style
Materials
Paper takeaway cup
Scissors
Craft knife
Hot glue gun and glue
Moss and eggs to decorate
Wash your cup thoroughly and allow
to dry (if the smell of coffee is still
strong, smear a paste made of water and
bicarbonate of soda over the inside of the
cup for a few hours and this should help
to get rid of it). Peel off any corrugated
outer cover.
Using the craft knife, make a small
incision halfway down the cup then cut
it into two.
Carefully cut the rolled rim from the top
of the cup and set aside; now snip a 5mm
wide strip at an angle into the middle
section and keep cutting it round and
round to make a long length of paper.
To make the body of the basket, cut 14
equal sections into the base of the cup
and then gently bend them outward.
(Rather than doing it by eye, the easiest
way to do this evenly is by measuring
the rim with a tape measure and
dividing the total circumference by 14.
The resulting number is the width of
each upright, so you can measure and
mark the cup with a pen accordingly).
Remove every other section neatly at
the base then bend the uprights back up
again.
Blob a little glue onto the end of your
long length of paper and attach to
the inside of one of the upright strips,
before weaving it in and out all the
way round. Continue to weave until
you reach the top of the basket, then
add a blob of glue to the end to secure
it to the basket and trim off the excess
working length.
Trim the uprights so they are all level.
Unroll the rim of the cup, fold it in half
and flatten it with the edge of the closed
scissors.
Apply some glue to the inside and,
working round the top of the basket,
fold it over and pinch tight to make a
neat rim (you will see there is an outer
curve and inner curve; the outer curve
should be the side that is glued to the
outside of the cup).
Cut a section from the remaining length
and glue it to the inside of the basket to
make a handle.
Fill with reindeer moss and some tiny
eggs and use to decorate your Easter
table.
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