Introduction: Sturdy Paper Basket (weaving)

This tutorial will show you how to make a basket using paper strips. Although you could use basically any type of paper for this, I used construction paper. I also used paper of three different colours, but again, you can deviate from this strategy is you so wish.

Step 1: Paper Strips

To start, you want to take your first two colours of paper and cut them into strips 11 inches long and 2 inches wide. You should have 7 strips of each colour, 14 in total. When all the strips are cut out, fold them in half hotdog-style so the strips are now one inch wide. From there, open the strips again and fold in the edges of the paper to line up with the middle line. Fold the strip over the halfway line again so your strips are now 0.5 inches wide and more sturdy. Glue the insides to keep them in place.

While doing this, it would also be good to take your 3rd colour of paper and cut it into 1-inch-wide strips, which I will refer to in this tutorial as "wall strips". Although what I did was make 12 4-inch-long strips of these, in hindsight it may have worked better to tape strips together so you have 3 16-inch-long strips folded into a closed square shape. Doing this should help hold the basket together, but I personally cannot guarantee that it works as well in practice as it does in theory. Therefore, if you don't mind having glue or tape visible on the edges of your box, it's best to make multiple short strips.

Step 2: Weaving Bottom of Basket

Now you should take a pencil and ruler and mark two points on all of your 1st-and2nd-coloured paper strips. The points should be 3.5 inches from the top and 3.5 from the bottom (the end result of the basket will have 3-inch walls, the extra length is just to provide excess in case it's needed).

From here on you should take 4 of each colour and line them up, alternating from colour 1 to colour 2. Then, taking the remaining strips (also colour-alternating), weave them in and out of the original set of strips, lining each strip up so the sections marked-off in pencil are not covered. Due to the sturdiness of the paper, the strips won't fit perfectly snug together, which is why you're only using 14 strips altogether and not 16.

When you're done, the weaved part of the strips should more-or-less be a 4-inch square. The free parts of the strips on each side 9the walls-in-progress) should now be bent forward. so that they all start to stand up. It's okay if they don't stand up perfectly, that will be fixed later.

Step 3: Weaving Walls

This is where the wall strips come into play. Taking a strip, weave it between one side of the wall-in-progress so that it covers up the 1st-colour strips and shows the 2nd. Make sure the strip meets up with where the other strips are weaved. When done, first glue the 1st-colour strips to the wall strip, then do the same with the 2nd.

Repeat this step with another wall strip weaved above the first one, this time with opposite colours concealed and showing. After that add one more wall strip, going back to the original conceal-show pattern. Repeat this will all other wall-in-progress sections

(If you are using a square of wall-strips to do this, gluing might prove difficult. If so, see if simply having the strips weaved in holds the walls up enough, or just glue the top wall strip to the others.)

With your now-finished walls, simply finish the box by taking hot-glue and running it along the edges of the walls, then sticking them together. Another option is to use tape on the inside of the box, but this option is more visible and therefore less recommended.

Step 4: Handle (Optional)

If you want a handle, it's pretty easy to add. Simply cut a strip of any of your previous colours, 2 inches wide and 11 inches long. Do the same process you did with the other strips, folding it in half and folding the edges in then gluing it so it's .5 inches wide. Glue/tape/staple/whatever it to the inside of the basket, 1 inch below the edge of the wall.