DIY Button Easter Basket

I've never really liked the cheesy Easter baskets they push at the big box stores.  You know, the cheaply-made dyed ones.. the ones you always seem to need to re-buy every year because they're so easily damaged?  Not to mention, they're pretty boring.  This year I decided to make a special one for our daughter.  I LOVE buttons and thought that would make a very adorable theme for decorating an Easter basket.  | This post contains affiliate links |
 

Materials: 

• willow basket
• buttons
• heavy button thread
• sewing needle
   

How-to:

I started with a sturdy willow basket (we purchased ours off Amazon, but you could get one just about anywhere), and used a needle strung with heavy button thread to "sew" the buttons to the basket.  Really I'm just tying them on, but the needle makes it a lot easier to thread the string around a few times.  

"Sewing" the buttons to the basket.

Once I felt as though the button was good and secure (we don't want them coming off, remember they can be a choking hazard), I tied off the thread with a couple knots and cut off the excess string.  

Sewing one of the last buttons on. 

This project took less than half an hour and now we have a cute, special Easter basket to use for years to come!  

Looking for more Easter ideas?  Check out our other Easter posts:  

• Young Toddler Easter Basket Ideas
• Chicken-Themed Easter Basket

DIY Mail Basket

This is an old project, and while I don't have photos of the process I'd still like to share it with all of you. 

Like most people, when it comes time to mail something we've got to hunt down the stamps, and the return address labels.. or maybe it was the thank-you cards we can't seem to find.  To combat this, I wanted to make a little catch-all to keep in the kitchen and corral all these necessities in one place.  

Materials:  

• basket
• scrap wood
• saw
• paint
• stencils
• Dremel tool or small drill
• wire

How-to:  

I already had a cute little chicken-wire basket I found at the dollar bins in Target (yes!), but you could use any kind of small basket or bin.  The bottom of my basket was slatted so I needed to make a new bottom in order for the contents to stay in, to do this I cut a scrap of wood down to size and painted it black to match the basket.  

To make the "Mail" sign, I took another small scrap of wood and cut it to size.  I painted it black and used some stencils (I used a Martha Stewart stencil set) to stencil MAIL in white.  

After everything was dry, I lined up the sign where I wanted it on the basket and marked where I needed to drill the holes for the wire.  Once they were drilled I threaded some wire through and twisted it in the back to secure the sign to the basket.  Done!