Kids Craft - Tissue Box Basket for Easter

I think this is a nice simple craft for kids and great for this time of year - of course you can adapt it to suit the occasion or season, but these baskets would be perfect for Easter egg hunts.

Take one empty cube-shaped tissue box and cut down to required depth of basket.  We had a pretty patterned one, and nowadays they come in a huge variety of designs.

Retain the off-cut part to make a handle.  Trim a strip for the basket handle and secure to the sides.  You could staple it on, glue it or tape it, but I used split pin paperclips - mainly because I have hundreds of them left over from our Spot the Dog and Easter Chick crafts, but also because this makes a nice 'swingy' handle.  Use some blu-tac and a pencil to punch the holes through the card first.

Then I asked Ruby to decorate the basket.  Here's where their imagination comes in.  Stupidly I'd told her that we were making cakes to go in the basket, so she was keen just to get on to that part.  Usually given free reign with glue and bits and bobs, this would have come out covered in feathers, glitter, paint, pompoms...you name it!  She reluctantly agreed to stick a few sequins on it and a sticky gem on the handle, but that's fine - it was a pretty box to begin with.

When dry I filled it with shredded tissue that I had left over from a gift box, and we're using it to take some cakes round to a friend today.  Much nicer than transporting them in an old ice-cream tub don't you think? As it's Easter, they are of course the ubiquitous chocolate cereal nest cakes, resplendent with eggs and fluffy chicks.

I wonder why she was so keen to get on to the cake making part?