Once upon a time while searching for craft ideas on the internet, I happened upon a site featuring recycled paper crafts. One young lady made sturdy and attractive baskets from old magazine pages. The idea stuck in my head, and when I found I needed a new bedside waste basket I knew what to do. While apartment hunting, we had picked up loads of visitors booklets and catalogs and luckily I knew where my glue sticks and hot glue supplies were. I even had an appropriately small box lid. I got to work rolling paper "logs" with the glue stick, and then fastening them to the lid using my hot glue gun. I loved the finished product and it served me well for 2 years. Then it got smashed. I decided it was time for an upgrade.
I regret to say that I have lost the original link for instructions on making the logs, but I have found another that covers it: Magazine Vase and Pencil Holder. The only difference is that I used glue sticks instead of Mod Podge.
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| Weaving the "logs" together |
I spent a while testing it apart and picking off old bits of hot glue. Once I had the bare components of box lid and paper "logs," I got to work. Using 24 gauge wire, I wove the logs together in sort of a random basket weave. I could have been a bit neater, but I was aiming for strength. Since I had ripped some of the logs I had already decided that aesthetics were no longer an immediate priority.
I wove the wire at the bottom and center of the logs to create a long panel. Next, I returned to the original design by hot gluing the panel to the lid. I then added glue between the logs. The finished product is much stronger, (and a little lopsided - oops) so goal achieved. Now to decide how to decorate it...
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| My lopsided basket. I wove a little too tightly. I think if I make it look like twigs, the lopsidedness of it will look natural. |
