Craft Tutorial: Restyle a Ceramic Easter Basket

Got a ceramic Easter knick-knack in your house that’s not really your style? Or, have you seen them popping up at your local thrift store or dollar store for Easter? Don’t store it away, pass it up, donate it, or (gasp!) re-gift it, add your own style to it!

Or in my case, add your girls’ style to it. I was going to make it all modern and clean looking, but then someone named DADA saw me studying my thrifted Easter basket and asked the girls without my prompting, “Hey girls, what colors should Mama make her Easter basket?” And the girls said “Pink!” “Blue” “Flowers!” “Dots!” So anyways, I made them pink and blue polka-dotted cherry blossom basket. I pretty much lost all creative control to satisfy my clients. Now I know how Don Draper feels.

Here’s how to Restyle a Ceramic Easter Basket!

Materials

• Linen fabric
• Felt

• White spray paint primer (not shown)
• Mod Podge
• Sponge brush
• Glue gun
• Scissors
• Disappearing ink pen (not shown)
• Round template for flowers (I used a roll of masking tape)
• Martha Stewart screw punch (optional) for polka dots

Directions

I wanted to cover the basket with this linen fabric to give it a more organic look, but it was thin so I could see the original design on the basket. So I sprayed some primer on the basket first.

When the primer dried, I cut a piece of the linen fabric that would totally cover up the outside and inside of the basket.

Here I’m testing it out…yep it’s big enough.

I then started brushing on the Mod Podge and pressing it tight onto the basket. First I did the front and back…

…then I did the sides. I had to fold it a little bit, as evenly as I could. It was kind of like wrapping a weird-shaped present. Though at this point I probably would have given up and used a gift bag.

Then I covered the handle and the inside. The inside was rather challenging. I think I used too much fabric…I should have trimmed it a little. But I figured I would be covering it with the eggs in the end. So I just tried to do it as neatly as possible, tucking in the raw edges. At this point I started to use a glue gun.

I used clothespins to help keep things in place while gluing the rest of it.

Next I made the tree trunk and flowers. First I cut a brown piece of felt for the trunk and used Mod Podge to adhere it along the curve of the basket.

At this point, I considered making a Mr. T basket. But didn’t. Don’t gimme no back-talk, sucka.

Then I made the flowers. First I (1) traced a circle using my tape as a template, then I (2) cut it out. Then I (3) folded it in half and (4) put a bead of hot glue along half of the folded edge, and (5) folded it over to form a 1/4 circle.

I decided not to use the pastel colors and stuck with the bright colors. Starting at the top, I layered on the flowers, alternating the colors.

I put a dab of glue at the corner…

…then tucked it in underneath the previous flower, adding more glue and pressing the previous flower down. I kept going until the flowers were about the level of the basket opening.

Now for the dots. You can just cut them out by hand, but I happened to have just bought this Martha Stewart punch for another project. I used the largest tip. First you put your felt scrap down on a cutting board or self-healing mat and press down. The punch kind of screws down into the fabric. Then release it.

The dot will actually go inside the punch. After you’ve punched out a few, you can use a toothpick or tweezers to poke it in, and they will come out this opening on the side. Nifty!

Yay for felt confetti!

I used hot glue to stick on the dots all over the basket as well as along the length of the tree trunk.

Last year I bought these kraft paper eggs but didn’t use them. I glued on the leftover dots on two of them…

…and an “S” monogram (one blue, one pink) on the other two, for each of my girls.

Something was missing, so I added a few leaves.

All done. Again, this was the before…

And after…

It was fun to totally transform this ceramic basket, and it didn’t take too long either. Even though it wasn’t what I really intended to make, I like it. Hope my girls do too.

Linking: The Frugal Girls :: Petite Hermine :: Tip Junkie :: Rook No. 17 :: The Trendy Treehouse ::Tidy Mom ::Creation Corner :: Whipperberry ::Sassy Sites:: Tatertots and Jello :: Lolly Jane Boutique ::Flamingo Toes ::Homemaker on a Dime :: The Gunny Sack :: Love Affair With My Brother:: Craft Monkey:: Mine for the Making ::Fine Craft Guild :: Mad in Crafts