10 Tips for Decorating Your Easter Basket

One way to express your creativity at Easter time is to decorate an Easter basket. Traditionally, Easter baskets are filled with candies for children, but there's no reason you can't make a decorative basket.

If you make a basket as an Easter decoration, you should ideally include some natural elements, such as plants or flowers, to express the spirit of the Easter season.

Here are some ideas:

Begin with a large-mouthed basket. Line the inside perimeter with brown cardboard and insert floral foam. Inside the basket, place two potted bunches of pink or yellow silk tulips. Add a small bunch of faux violets, and some faux daffodils. You can place plastic eggs inside the basket. Fasten a fake butterfly or bee to one of the basket handles.

All the items in this basket can be found at craft stores.Start with a plastic Easter basket. Fill the bottom with shredded green construction paper. Next, place mounds of modeling clay into the basket. Choose three types of silk Easter flowers and stick each bunch of silk blooms into the clay. Add some small plastic Easter eggs to complete the arrangement.

Start with a pastel basket. Place floral foam inside the basket. On one side, insert some faux pink. hydrangeas. In the back, insert silk purple hyacinths. In the center, place some fake daffodils. On the remaining side, position some fake tulips. In the front, seat a small stuffed bunny.

Use a tall basket made with widely separated wires. Next, insert half a dozen wooden or plastic eggs. Next, take a planter that fits inside the
mouth of the basket. Insert floral foam; then stick faux flowers into the planter. Choose silk flowers that match the dye colors.

Choose some fake boxwood topiaries in planters. If desired, you can repaint the planters with pastel colors, so they resemble baskets. Cover the soil of the planters with faux moss. Next, take some fake "robin's eggs" (the malted candy version) and glue the eggs to the branches of the fake boxwoods.

Cover a shallow Easter basket with artificial moss and leaves. (Use glue or floral wire.) Wrap the handle with more faux moss and leaves. In the middle of the basket (on top of a mound of foam) construct a fake nest with silk branches or plastic cords. The star of the arrangement is a miniature bird.

Start with a woven Easter basket. Using floral foam, fill the basket with pink silk daisies. Back up the faux flowers with artificial leaves. Add sprigs of silk goldenrod. In the center, place three faux white carnations. On the carnations, glue purple pipe cleaners to form bunny ears. Finish your bunnies by gluing on black Pom poms for eyes, and pink Pom Pom noses.

Begin with a shallow basket. Place a piece of floral foam inside. Using the foam, secure some faux Easter flowers (like daffodils, peonies, carnations and hibiscus.) Back the flowers up with silk leaves and greens. To finish the arrangement, place two tall pink candles into the foam.

This study of contrasts is an adaptation of a centerpiece design. Use a basket with rounded edges. Glue cabbage leaves to the outside of the basket. You can bend the leaves over at the rim for a flair. Place floral foam inside. Select a dozen artificial tulips and stick them into the foam. Include artificial tulip stems. If desired, glue a ribbon on the front.

This is another adaptation of a centerpiece idea. Begin with a pink woven basket. Glue pink Peeps on the outside of the basket. Place a small mound of floral foam or clay in the middle of the basket. Insert two wide-petalled silk pink tulips into the clay or foam. Frame the tulips with fake greenery to finish the arrangement.

Any of these ideas for decorated Easter baskets would make a festive addition to your table.