We’re planning quite a big overhaul in our house: we want to convert our bedroom into a small office space/craft room. Thomas works from home a lot and all the crafting I’ve been doing the last few months is getting in the way of that. Our dining table is also the desk Thomas works at during the day and my craft supplies kind of live there now too. I would like to have a wide desk in what’s going to be our new office and I think I’ll need lot of baskets and boxes to put all my stuff and supplies or I’m never going to keep it nice and orderly. I could just buy those boxes and baskets of course (and I probably will buy a few) but I thought it would be nice to have a few small ones that are hand made.

I’ve pinned several tutorials on basket weaving and I was debating doing this one but I didn’t have any sturdy cardboard around so I’m saving that one for a next time. What I did have (in abundance!) are old magazines and when I found this tutorial I knew that was a perfect fit for Monday’s project. (I know this project is very much like a typical Tiny Crafts Tuesday project. However, it’s to do with recycling and DIY too so I’m not that bothered.)

The tutorial is from the same blog where I found the origami arrow tutorial and it’s really a great source for paper craft tutorials. The author has stopped writing for the blog, as she’s too busy being very talented graphic designer, but the archives are still there to peruse.

For this pin I didn’t need a lot of supplies…

 

• magazines (actually, I only used one and not even the whole thing).
• scissors
• ruler
• tape

I started by taking a section from out of the middle of the magazine. Then, I folded the double pages lengthwise in eights.

 

I didn’t have a rotary cutter and cutting these strips with scissors was going to take a long time so I just started tearing the pages along the fold lines.

 

The edges of the strips were not going to show so it didn’t matter if they looked a bit rough. Next, I started preparing my strips.

 

I folded each strip in half lengthwise…

 

…then, I folded each of the sides in….

..up to a third of the width.

 

When I had prepared a dozen or so I started weaving the base of the basket. I made sure that the smooth side of the strips, with none of the edges showing were on the outside of the basket.

 

After weaving a few strips (the beginning is a little fiddly), I made sure I was centered…

 

…and I also put a piece of tape in the middle of the bottom to keep those first strips in place.

I removed that later when I was done.

I kept on weaving in more strips…

 

…until I had a big enough base.

 

Then, I folded the part of the strips that stuck out upwards at an 90 degree angle…

 

…and proceeded to weave in the strips horizontally to create the sides…

 

…I secured the strips on the inside corners with pieces of tape. Then I just continued weaving in the side strips…

 

…pushing down those strips as much as possible…

 

…until I had reached the top of the basket. I trimmed off the top of the strips to get a straight edge…

 

…and then I attached a strip of paper along the top edge of the basket.

I also secured this with tape but I wish I had used some glue because it made it look a bit wonky in the end.

 

Result!

 

I like how sturdy it is and I can really use this to hold small bits and bobs like washi tape, buttons, beads or small cards. When I’m doing this again I will try to be a bit more precise about the length of the horizontal strips and fold them all at the same spot because now the sides aren’t as straight as they could be. All in all a great project though and I’m definitely making more of there as soon as the office space is ready.