Basket in a Bag

Here's a fun idea inspired by the modular origami boxes of Tomoko Fuse- a flat-pack basket in a bag. The basket sides slot together, then a handle is added. These baskets would be just great for a child's craft activity party (over three - brads included). The party guests could make the baskets, then fill them with goodies.

Here are your free files, hand-cut or digi-cut (Silhouette):
BasketinaBag.pdf 
BasketinaBagBag.pdf 

BasketinaBag.studio3 
BasketinaBagBag.studio3 

Basket in a Bag

The basket sides are partially assembled - and folded compactly - before placing in the bag. Crease the folds and stick the base flap, making a channel. For each basket, you need two sides with handle holes, two without. You also need the handle (two contrasting strips, glued or d/s taped back-to-back) and two brads. The base liners are optional. 

To assemble the basket, slide the tab into the channel of the the adjacent side. Alternate the sides with the handle holes with the plain sides. To make the basket base, fold down the bottom flaps consecutively, tucking the last side under. Attach the handle with the brads. You can pop in a base liner as a decorative feature.

To seal the bag, you can use a 20cm (8in) strip of 3mm (1.8in) ribbon or the narrow paper strip provided.

I prefer the cut-out version of the basket - much more elegant. However, for a super-easy basket, no need to cut out the motif.

The baskets can be disassembled just as easily as they are made. If you want to make the basket permanent, glue a base liner onto the basket bottom. (You will have to glue on the base liner as a reinforcement if filling the basket with heavy contents. You can glue a base liner inside and outside, if required.)

You can post these baskets along with Easter - or birthday cards.

 

Terrarium Gift Box

Here's a cute little gift box that channels the trend for succulents and projects in South West colours. The slot-close box resembles a sand-painted terrarium - retro fun. Just the right size for a small treat.

Here are your freebie print-and-cut files, cut by hand, or digi-cut with a Silhouette machine:
TerrariumGiftBox.pdf
TerrariumGiftBox.studio3

Terrarium Gift Box

To make up:
1 Print onto photocopier card.
2 Score the fold lines with a fine-point embossing tool held against a small metal ruler.
3 If cutting by hand, cut the slots first. Alternatively, digi-cut with a Silhouette machine.
4 Crease the folds. Join the side tab to make a ring, then join the bottom tabs to the base. Use tacky PVA glue or d/s tape.
5 To close the box, slide apex tabs into adjacent slots.
6 The tag is optional. Tie it through a slot before closing the box.

Beautiful Paper Stars. Review.

Beautiful Paper Stars

Craft Decorations for Every Season

By Ursula Stiller, Armin Täubner and Gudrun Thiele

Floris Books 2015

Paperback  £14.99

ISBN 978 178250207-4

Star rating (!):****

Star quality! A jumbo compendium of folded paper stars – paper manipulation heaven! You don’t have to be a papercraft geek to access and appreciate the starry projects in this book – but if you are, there is plenty to keep you enthralled here. The projects are graded according to difficulty (star rating – natch– of one to three).

The makes are suitable as festive decorations year-round – for parties (indoor or patio), weddings, Christmas, even home decor. Garland or solo, paper stars are attention-grabbers.

The book is divided into sections according to  traditional star type, and each section has its own expert contributor. The star varieties are Aurelio Stars (3-D interlocking modular triangles), Filino Stars, Froebel Stars* (woven paper strips), Messina Stars (fan-style with individual folded units), Solino Stars (papercut), and Venezia.  I would have liked a capsule history of each star style. No info is provided on their crafty origins (I know that Froebel stars are the brainchild of 19^th century German educationalist Friedrich Froebel - Wiki him). 

Each section begins with basic techniques for each star style. Step-by-steps are given photographically or as line drawings (I did think that the drawings for the complex Froebel star were a little confusing). Following on from basic how-tos are projects of increasing difficulty level. Variations in paper type and surface decoration provide the tweaks.

The projects are attractively photographed in suitably cosmic settings to maximize the fun factor. Handy tips are interspersed – example (spoiler alert) – tie the hanging thread around the centre of a spent matchstick and insert into gap in star. (Wish I thought of that.)

Back-of-book is a template section. A few templates are same-size, but most require enlargement.

Beautiful Paper Stars delivers on the title.  It is a worthy addition to your papercraft  library. There is much here I am keen to explore.

 *Folded Paper German Stars, by Armin Täubner

Above is a link to another title by one of Beautiful Paper Stars' contributors. He's your go-to guy for Froebel Stars!