I have, like so many, many others, sites and blogs that I check everyday for inspiration and ideas. Two of my favorites, Dollar Store Crafts and Make and Takes had a contest just in time for Earth Day called the 'Recycled Art Craft Challenge', and the challenge was to create something with some recycled items : paper tubes, egg cartons, or plastic containers. If you haven't guessed by the title of this post, I chose paper tubes. And lots of them. I made a coppery weaved basket that was actually super cheap (yay!) and pretty easy (double yay!) Here's what I used and what I did to make mine (about 7"x7.5"x7.5"):

~paper towel tubes (about 16)
~copper colored foil paper (about 11- 11"x17" sheets)
~hot glue

The paper I used is Reynolds Ultra Foil Colors. I found this awesome stuff at the dollar store for 50 cents a package (which comes with two 11"x17" sheets), so for $4 I had 8 packages, which was more than enough.


Here's the foil stuff...
Now the package says not to submit the foil to temperatures over 180 degrees, but I had no problem with my glue gun. The only thing I noticed was that you can see the little glue lines, but they're on the inside of the basket, anyway.







1. My first step was cutting the paper tubes into 4 long sections. Pretty easy, just fold in half and cut along the folds, then fold each piece in half again and cut.

2. Now comes the repetitive part- wrapping each piece in foil.

It's really not much different than wrapping a present. Glue one side down, cut the other side to overlap, then glue, and the fold in the ends and glue.
Repeat about 64-ish times.

A trick I learned at about strip #10 was for the ends: cut the corners, and also the front flap. Much easier to glue down that way.





2. Once all of your strips are wrapped up, all nice and shiny, comes the weaving. The easiest part in the bottom of the basket. Start with a few strips...

Work in a few more...








until you have it at about 5 squares by 5 squares.

3.Here's where it can get a little tricky. I folded up all the strips right after the last square. So now you have a flat bottom and some jagged, uneven sides.


(You can see where I experimented with tape in the beginning- this would work just as well with double-sided tape, but I just didn't have any. Regular tape is a no-go. I don't recommend it).



4.Now you begin weaving strips in to make the sides. It takes about four strips ( at 10 1/4" long) to make it around the perimeter of the box. This is also where you begin to add strips vertically where the strips from the bottom have ended.
Keep weaving and adding and gluing or taping where necessary (no real rhyme or reason to this, just wherever you need extra support or strength), until you've reached your desired height. Now beware, this can be a little time consuming, and there is a lot of bending and pushing involved. The basket is actually pretty rugged, so don't be afraid of it falling apart on you- it won't.









5. I took my basket up 5 squares and that was a good height for me. At the top, I folded in all of the strips that were on the outside and trimmed them down, and trimmed down the strips that were on the inside. (Sorry for the explanations, I hope they're clear enough... or at least the pictures are helpful...)








Once everything is trimmed and folded, I used four more strips to cover up the edges on the inside as a finishing touch.






And there you have it, folks, a basket! A surprisingly sturdy, shiny basket! Now who doesn't love something shiny???