DIY upcycled paper coffee cup woven Easter baskets

I have a penchant for both hot beverages and travel mugs, and can’t even start my car engine unless there is a nice cup of tea in the dashboard mug holder. However from time to time I do end up buying the odd takeaway coffee, so who would guess that these little dinky Easter baskets are made from the paper cups that subsequently end up on the floor of my car? Whether hidden in the garden by the Easter bunny or used as table settings for your special lunch, they look adorable filled with moss and tiny treats.

Materials

Paper takeaway cup

Scissors

Craft knife

Hot glue gun and glue

Moss and eggs to decorate

1. Wash your cup thoroughly and allow to dry (if the smell of coffee is still strong, smear a paste made of water and bicarbonate of soda over the inside of the cup for a few hours and this should help to get rid of it). Peel off any corrugated outer cover.
2. Using the craft knife, make a small incision half way down the cup then cut it into two.
3. Carefully cut the rolled rim from the top of the cup and set aside; now snip a 5mm wide strip at an angle into the middle section and keep cutting it round and round to make a long length of paper.
4. To make the body of the basket, cut 14 equal sections into the base of the cup and then gently bend them outward. (Rather than doing it by eye, the easiest way to do this evenly is by measuring the rim with a tape measure and dividing the total circumference by 14. The resulting number is the width of each upright, so you can measure and mark the cup with a pen accordingly).
5. Remove every other section neatly at the base then bend the uprights back up again.
6. Blob a little glue onto the end of your long length of paper and attach to the inside of one of the upright strips, before weaving it in and out all the way round. Continue to weave until you reach the top of the basket, then add a blob of glue to the end to secure it to the basket and trim off the excess working length.
7. Trim the uprights so they are all level .
8. Unroll the rim of the cup, fold it in half and flatten it with the edge of the closed scissors.
9. Apply some glue to the inside and, working round the top of the basket, fold it over and pinch tight to make a neat rim (you will see there is an outer curve and inner curve; the outer curve should be the side that is glued to the outside of the cup).
10. Cut a section from the remaining length and glue it to the inside of the basket to make a handle.
11. Fill with reindeer moss and some tiny eggs and use to decorate your Easter table.