How to — Homemade Kid’s Basket

My nephews are 7 and 5 and they are super hard to buy presents for! They are at that age where they’ve grown out of toys, and I’ve bought them oodles of clothes and books — so what is a girl to do when the holidays are fast approaching and I want to find them the perfect gifts? Well, I started with the notion of getting them both the same thing so there would be no question of favoritism (you all know how kids can be!) I wanted them to have something cute for their very creative surfer themed bathroom, and I know they love hair products, so I set out to make them surf themed bathroom baskets! It wound up being easier and more cost effective then I thought, since the pre-made ones I found online were upwards of $40 a piece! Ouch! When you make things yourself they are more personal anyways, so here is my “how to” on making a kid’s basket:

What you’ll need:

• Spray paint
• Wooden pallet basket
• Painted shapes or pictures in your theme (lightweight works best)
• Glue gun
• White wooden letter or letters for the child’s name or initial (your choice)
• Shredded tissue paper in any color

Step 1: Get the basket! I chose a pallet basket from Joann Fabrics. These generally run about $12-15 a piece unless you have a handy dandy coupon for 40% which Joann’s is great about posting to their website every so often. These baskets are unfinished and so easy to paint, we spray painted ours and used two coats, letting the coats dry overnight in-between.

Step 2: Decide where to place each of your wooden shapes. We used a variety of surf and beach themed shapes for ours, and these are easy to find at Joann’s or Michaels.  The best part about these is that they are already finished! Using a hot glue gun, place them where you’d like on the outside of the pallet basket.

Step 3: Using the hot glue gun, position your initial or letters in the center of the pallet basket, marking with a pencil if needed, and hot glue to the pallet basket.

Step 4: Fill your basket bottom with shredded tissue in any color or a variety of colors, about one third of the way full. This is your cushion for all the goodies you will place inside. Tissue can be found at any party store (I got mine at Party City).

Step 5: Fill that basket! For ours, we used: surf themed bath towels, hair gels, shampoos, toothbrushes (spinbrushes are cute), hand sanitizer, toothbrush holders, hairsprays and loofas… (all from the $1 store or $1 bins at Walmart or Target).

This gift is so versatile, you can make bedroom baskets for toys, books, birthdays with a specific theme, art supplies, or even for an adult for a housewarming gift that can be re-purposed as a basket for blankets, magazines or remotes. The sky is the limit so have fun and make your next gift giving occasion both crafty and creative!

____________________________________________________________________________________________

This post is sponsored by:

The Brett Saks Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, hopes  to make our Arizona communities safer for bicyclists by teaching adults and children about road safety and mutual respect between drivers and cyclists in fun and engaging ways. We are “Shifting Gears to Saves Lives,” as more than 600 cyclists are lost each year to car-bike accidents. Learn more at gearupaz.org.