A Little “Green” Crafting Magic

In the middle of our crazy bedroom switcharoo project, we stopped for a quick, green little snack in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

The inspiration came from the plastic mesh bag that grapefruit and onions are sold in. After the kids inhaled four giant grapefruit, I was wondering if I could possibly make something out this sack before I tossed it. The result was a quick little basket perfect for taming that treasure at the end of the rainbow (or at least a rainbow of fruit flavors.)

Want to make one?

For this project you’ll need:

As always though … rock what ya got.

Trace and cut out the outline of a small cup or jar on a scrap piece of paper …

… then place paper against the bottom of the glass, wrap the mesh tightly around the sides and trim away the extra mesh. You should have just enough length at the bottom to fold into the middle to make the bottom of the basket.

Carefully add a ring of hot glue to the paper base and carefully fold the mesh into towards the center. Again … carefully.

Trim the top edge to make it flat and run a small bead of glue down the back seam of the mesh to close the side seems. When glue has set, carefully remove basket from the mold.

My kids liked the look of a handle Easter basket style so I added a narrow strip of mesh with a dot of glue on each side to the smaller one. A quick coat of spray paint …

…  and my pot of gold was done. Drying time was only an hour.

(And I’m already thinking ahead to Easter and picturing a table setting with these little baskets painted white and filled with small pastel Cadbury Robins Eggs. Yum!)

At the last minute I added a quick shamrock out of felt. No biggie.

So there you go!

Some recycling magic and yummy treat that even St. Patrick would like.

Now that’s my kind of green.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!