There are a lot of beautiful baskets available in the market to put jewellery or cosmetics in it or other petty daily-use stuff. Whether you want one for yourself or to gift your friend or family member, it always a wonderful to make by yourself, especially when it is too easy.

So today we are making one which looks cute and is too easy to make and most of things are easily available at home.

Things you need:

1. Toothpicks (the number depends on the shape and size of the basket you are making)

2. Cardboard piece (at least 6x6 inches)

3. White glue or hot glue

4. Yarn (any colour of your choice)

5. Pencil

6. Scissors

7. Beads, ribbons or pearls for decoration (optional)

Directions:

1. Make a shape of your choice on the cardboard piece with a pencil, for example, star, oval, square. I made a heart, see picture 2.

2. Cut it out carefully, picture 3.

3. Now very carefully insert toothpicks, leaving half a centimetre from the edge of the cardboard piece, picture 4.

4. Secure the toothpicks by applying glue at the backside of the cardboard or you can dip the bottom of the toothpick in glue and then insert. This will lock the toothpicks to their place, as in picture 5. Your cardboard heart with toothpicks should look like the one in picture 6.

5. Tie a knot of the yarn around one of the toothpicks and then begin weaving the string in and out between every toothpick, pictures 7, 8 and 9. Don’t pull the string, just keep your grip firm.

6. When you reach the top and see the points of toothpicks, tie a knot on any toothpicks, picture 10.

7. To give colour to the base of your basket, cut any coloured paper or felt in the same shape and put it inside, pictures 11 and 12.

8. The tips of the toothpicks are usually pointed, so you can either cover them with a ribbon or insert a pearl or a bead as I did; see pictures 13 and 14.

9. Paste any ribbon or beads around the basket, picture 15.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 3rd, 2018