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Mossing Around With Baskets

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Do you have any old baskets hanging around your house that you don’t know what to do with?

You know, the kind that came to you all wrapped in pretty cellophane and filled with yummy treats . . . but now sit empty on a closet floor.

Or perhaps you still have some of those baskets that used to hang in decorative groupings on your kitchen walls . . . or marched across the top of your kitchen cabinets!

(I’m thinking back to the country decor of the late 70’s, early 80’s here and I hope I don’t offend anyone if your baskets are still adorning your walls or your cabinets.  As far as I know that may even be back in style)!

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Perhaps you have a stray basket like this one.  It’s cute but not big enough to hold swags of flowers, or to use as a laundry basket, or sit on top of an armoire.

This little basket has been sitting out on my front porch for the past year.  At times it’s been filled with a few seashells that came home with me from the beach, or moss and sticks and other treasures picked up while out walking the neighborhood.  In Winter it held a few pinecones and red berries.

So now it’s Spring and time to add something new to my basket.  When I saw that it was growing a bit of it’s own moss I decided why not help it out?  Thus, the birth of an idea:  Mossing Around With Baskets!

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Now if you live in a place like I do, you can take a walk through the neighborhood to collect your moss.  It is on the trees and the sidewalks.  It is on deck railings and patios.

1-Moss 002I actually found the greatest moss ever on top of this outhouse!  Oh how I wanted to trespass and do some moss collecting.

Haha! I feel a joke coming on here . . . You know you’re a redneck if . . . your neighbor doesn’t have the moss cleaned off the roof of his outhouse!

(Just to clarify, we live on a lake that used to be mostly summer cottages and this is a remnant of that time.  We ourselves don’t have an outhouse . . . but hmmm . . .  we do live on a gravel road . . .)

ANYHOO, if you live in a drier climate you can always head down to your local craft store and pick up a bag of moss.

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This is such a simple project and it takes about ten minutes to complete.  You simply begin by pulling your moss apart into strips like this.

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Then start poking it into the sides of your basket.  I actually had my glue gun out and ready to go but I found that this basket had large enough gaps that the moss held firm when poked into the holes with my thumbnail.

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I just kept adding moss wherever there were holes to poke it into.

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And that was it!

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The bonus is that even the inside of the basket has a little moss peeking through.

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10-Mossy Basket 026So what do you think?  Cute yes?

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When you’re finished you can fill your basket with whatever Easter or other Spring décor you have around the house.  Here I’ve added some Spanish moss and eggs that I decoupaged last year.  The tutorial can be found for the large egg HERE and for the smaller eggs HERE.

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My old basket is back out on my front porch, sitting on an old chair.  I tucked in a few sprigs of heather cut from my yard.

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I absolutely love simple projects like this one and I think my old leftover basket looks so happy now that it is all filled up and made new again!

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What ideas do you have for using old baskets?  I’d really love to hear!

If you liked this post please share it with a friend 🙂

Blessings,

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Mossy Easter Egg

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I thought I’d finished my Spring decorating (link back for more of that here) until I stopped in at my neighborhood Goodwill store and . . . well . . . you know how the story goes from there.

 
I spied this (not so) marvelous ceramic egg, circa 1978.

I didn’t love the pink flowers and there was a little chip off it’s nose (can you believe they were charging $1.99 for a chipped egg?) but  that was all okay. I immediately saw it’s potential and began to formulate my plan.

  Step one: Gather some moss from my yard.

Step two: Lay it out to dry on Beauregard’s tray
(Beauregard is our porch watchdog).
NOTE: It is really good to allow the moss to dry completely. I was impatient and worked with it while it was still a bit damp, resulting in the surprise of little baby worms wiggling out of the moss when I applied the hot glue. Yuck! By morning they were all dried up and stuck to my tray.  Double yuck! 

Step three: Print an Easter graphic from The Graphics Fairy, cut a few slits for ease in molding it around the egg’s lid and ModPodge in place (a layer of glue under the paper, another layer over).

 Step four: Use the glue gun to attach moss to the bottom of the egg,
 
leaving the bottom uncovered so it would have a firm surface to stand upright.

Step five: Add a little ASCP Dark Wax to add age and highlight the wrinkles in the paper (I think they look a bit like cracks in the egg), topped by another coat of glossy ModPodge to seal and finish it off.

I think these bunnies are so darn cute!
 

          I ended up gluing the egg’s top and bottom together for stability and glued a row of moss over the seam.

So now for deciding where to display my mossy little Easter egg . . .

. . . under cover on my cake plate,

 with my vintage book Rabbit Hill (also a thrift store find),

 or tucked in among my other decoupaged eggs (tutorial here). 


I am delighted with this mossy, bunnied, egg.

 
Sometimes, I just have to say to God, “You are brilliant! I never could’ve come up with this idea without You!”
 
   Blessings,
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Napkin Decoupaged Eggs

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So here is another of the decorations seen in my post Spring Dreamin’, along with a step-by-step tutorial for making your own decoupaged Easter eggs (AND the secret for getting dozens of eggs done in record time)! There are so many terrific egg decorating ideas across the Internet. This one is fairly simple but so striking with all the colors to be found in paper napkins.

I started with a couple of different types of eggs, plastic eggs from The Dollar Store and some wooden eggs from Goodwill. The Goodwill eggs were already painted, someone else’s project passed along for my re-use! I prefer the wooden eggs, if you can find them, as they are flat on the bottom and will stand on end.
For my egg design I used these lovely Spring napkins from The Dollar Store and Marshall’s.
Begin by cutting out the shapes that you want to apply to your egg.
If your napkins are multi-layered you’ll want to separate them into a single sheet before gluing.
 I used Mod Podge Gloss for the eggs shown here. Begin by applying the decoupage medium with a paintbrush, to the area you where you want to place your first shape (I laid down wax paper to prevent the eggs from sticking to my work surface).

 

Lay your pre-cut shape on top of the glue you’ve applied and begin patting it into place with your paintbrush. Don’t worry about a few wrinkles, they actually add to effect.
After your shape is patted down, apply a layer of glue over the top of the piece you’ve just applied. This will secure it and seal it. Don’t worry about visible glue as it will dry clear.
I recommend applying one shape at a time and allowing it to dry a bit before going on to the next section. Otherwise, your fingers will stick and pull the paper away from the egg.
 You really can’t mess this up. If you finish your egg and don’t like the layout, simply add some more shapes until you’re satisfied with the result. This one was done all in script. Then I added a butterfly for a touch of color.
 You can see the many layers on this egg. No perfection aimed for here, just keep going until you like the result.
 Now, here is the secret to getting a nice big basket of decorated eggs for your Easter table. Invite about a dozen friends over for a luncheon and a little crafting time. Wander around giving them instructions for creating the most beautiful eggs ever. When they’ve used up most of the eggs you’ve supplied say, “Wow! The eggs you’ve created are so amazing. Thank you all for coming today and helping me complete my Easter decorations!”
 
You should’ve seen the look on my sweet friend Monica’s face when she heard those words coming out of my mouth. She was so proud of the eggs she’d created, and of the decoupaged vase she’d made from her Frappucino bottle, that she was stunned that she was going to have to give it all up!!!  Haha! Of course I didn’t mean it and I didn’t really take any one’s eggs away from them. It was a pretty funny moment though!  Okay, I’ll admit that I’m lucky my friends have good senses of humor.








 
Here are a few close-ups of my completed eggs. I think they are so colorful and fun.
 
 
 

In case you missed my Rosette Wreath Tutorial and are in the mood for making more you can link to that post here.
 
I’ll be back in a few days with one more Spring Dreamin’ tutorial. Until then, blessings to you,
 
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