Easter Basket

Good afternoon!! I finally got a chance to finish up this little project I had in mind. At Christmas I received the yummiest chocolate truffles from Maria and they came with a bonus - the box they were in was perfect for altering!! Becky and Jan made beautiful projects with their boxes quite a while ago. I thought it almost looked egg-shaped so an Easter project would be perfect!

I thought since it was to be an Easter basket I'd try to weave my paper like a basket for the bottom (not original I know, but work with me! lol!) I used my Imaginisce For Peep's Sake paper (here I used Drapin' Daisies, Color Me Happy and Tiptoe Through Tulips) and some pretty green ribbon. In order to weave the paper I cut it into strips, glued the bottom edges onto a piece of white cardstock, did the weaving and then cut all the layers to the shape I needed (using the white cardstock made it easier to keep the spacing right). Oh I forgot to say that I painted the edges of the box white in case they would show through a bit.

I made a quick little gift card to use with the basket using my 3 Step Hey Chick set from Kitchen Sink Stamps. I just LOVE this cute set - that little chickie is so adorable! Funny thing too - when I first got the set and was testing it out I was a little puzzled because I could not make my egg look like Maria's sample on the packaging so I emailed her to see what I was doing wrong. Turns out she had stamped the egg and then drawn in some of the shading (she did a great little tutorial on how to do this!!). I really never gave it a second thought but yesterday I received a letter from Kitchen Sink Stamps. After our conversation the 3rd egg stamp had so bothered Maria that she just had to change it! Enclosed was a single 3rd step egg stamp with the shading line - and not just to me but to everyone who had purchased this set so far (anyone who buys it going forward will get this new 3rd step egg stamp)!! How is that for fantastic, amazing customer service and just plain pride in your product?! Thank you for caring so much Maria - I LOVE the new stamp!! :)

Here is a close up of the eggs I made for the inside. For the small blue one, I case'd this idea by Melissa Phillips. Basically it's just strips of paper Modge Podged onto a small plastic egg. To cover up the ends, I punched out a circle of the dp and Modge Podged it onto the bottom. On the top I used a Prima layered with a new Bella teeny pink rose with a tiny Swarovski crystal in the center. The yellow egg is something I'm sure we have seen a lot so I don't know where the idea originated. I used my SU! flower punch to punch out a ton of little yellow flowers and then pinned them to a styrofoam egg with tiny brass straight pins.

Have a Happy Easter! Even though I love the eggs, bunnies and jellybeans, I am personally especially thankful for this time when I celebrate the incredible sacrifice made by my Savior. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." II Corinthians 9:15