A Heartfelt Birthday Gift Basket

Today I'm sharing another new Sizzix die designed by Eileen Hull that was shown at Creativation this past January.  

A beautiful little Basket die! 

I made my sweet little birthday basket out of white Little Sizzles Mat Board with some wood grain  patterned paper layered over it.

First I die cut the basket, then traced the pieces onto the wood grain paper, marking where to punch the holes.

I adhered all the pieces of patterned paper to the die cut matboard pieces (being sure to line up the handle holes!) and then assembled the basket according to the instructions.

Instead of using the handles from the die - I thought it would look cute to have twisted wire handles, so I took 18" of 18 gauge floral wire, folded it in half to make it a thick twist and used Eileen's Twist N Style tool to twist it up!  I repeated the process so I had two handles.

This gave me two sturdy pieces for the handles - that I could bend but they would keep their shape.

I used pliers to bend the pieces into equal sized handles and made a loop on each end.

First, I adhered the die cut rims to the top of the basket edges and then attached the handles using 10 mm Flat Broke Brads from Bazzill, having the loops of the handles on the inside of the basket.

I cut some felt flowers and leaves using Eileen's new Stitchy Flowers and Leaf Thinlits dies, layered them and held them together with a little flower brad.  I adhered one flower to each side of the basket.

To finish decorating my little basket - I added a stamped sentiment on each side and filled the basket with basket shred.

Stamps are from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous - Crazy Talk set.

Isn't this basket a lovely way to give a friend a gift card or small gift?   

It measures about 4 3/8" x 4 1/2" x 1 1/2" including the handles.

Eileen will be posting all of the Creative Teams projects using her new dies on her blog during the month of March - so please check it out - I know you will be inspired!