The first shelf of the wooden cabinet in my dining room is stuffed with old newspapers. Every night, after the entire family has read, I deposit the paper in its designated place. Once the shelf has no room for any more paper, which is usually once a month, or sometimes a little longer, I bundle it and sell the pile at the neighboring old-paper-wala.
Last week, I stumbled upon a project in CraftStylish on how to make a basket from a newspaper. I couldn’t wait to get started on a project that required no fancy stuff and made use of a simple thing as a newspaper. It was more of an evening project and I worked on it while the rest of the family watched TV. It took me about 30 minutes to make the basket from scratch to finish. ..
And here’s the finished piece …
I wanted a small basket that could store two TV remotes and a few CDs. I used about 20 individual sheets of paper and stapled each interweaving section to make it sturdy. The blue strip on the top is a plastic sheet from a courier package I received. The sides are a bit rusty with the interweaving not neatly done..I had to hasten the process because it was close to dinner time. The basket now sits on top of the inverter holding two remotes and a couple of nursery rhymes CDs. You can use the Sunday sheets to make it more colorful.
How to make one:
1. Firstly, decide on how large you want the basket to be based on what you intend to store. Some of the things you can stash in are remotes, CDs, and magazines.
2. Take about 20 sheets of paper for a small basket and tear each sheet along the folded edge. So you’ll have two individual strips from one folded sheet of paper. I just ran my fingers once along the folded edge and then swiftly ripped it into with my hands. Alternately, you can stack all the sheets and split them into two using a cutter or a blade.
3. Fold each individual sheet vertically into half and then into quarters until it is about an inch wide.
4. Once you have eight 1″ wide strips, start weaving to form the center of the basket’s base. Stapling the intersections is not necessary. However, I stapled the first few intersections to get started on a solid base and hold them in place.
5. When the base is large enough, turn the strips vertically at right angles to form the sides. Staple the lower strip so that it doesn’t fall off and remains upright. I used up 4 strips along the length and breadth for the base, before turning it up by 90 degrees.
6. Now start weaving horizontally along the vertical edges to form the sides of the basket. The sides typically requires four to five rows.
7. When you are satisfied with the height of the basket, cut off the vertical strips. You can use a colorful tape to secure the top circumference of the basket. This will camouflage the newspaper ends and give it a good finish. I used a blue packaging material from a courier package I’d received.
Cost of the project:
Under Rs. 50
Get started on your own newspaper project and yes, don’t forget to leave a link here showing off your results.
