Dec 14 2009
A Post Power-Off Frugal & Green Gift #5: Newspaper or Magazine Basket
Storage basket made from recycled magazines:
Hello there,
Rachel asked me to do a guest post about this project, since it’s one she and I had worked on together before and that I recently took on all by myself. It probably would have been a good use of your Power-Off Weekend. Well, maybe next time. So! Let’s talk weaving.
Time required: Uh… several hours.
It took me an American football game (roughly 3.5 hours) and another hour or so to finish, but in fairness, I made a custom-size basket out of magazines, so there was a lot of time spent looking at things sideways and gluing bits together to make them as long as I needed them. So, if you use newspaper, or use magazines to make a smaller basket, it will take less time than that.
Materials needed: a newspaper or magazine, scissors, glue/tape/staples.
Skills needed:
cutting, using adhesives, patience, putting one thing on top of another.
The original idea: Rachel tells me she saw it here… http://www.craftstylish.com/item/47658/the-times-they-are-a-changing-how-to-make-a-basket-from-a-newspaper.
The process:
Rip pages out of your chosen newspaper or magazine. I chose, with all the irony I could muster, an old Martha Stewart Living. Fold each page in half the long way, then in half again, then in half again. I used the handle end of my scissors to get a nice strong crease on the last fold.

crease those bad boys.
Next, weave the pages together, using an alternating over-under technique.

that's as over-under as it gets.

you can see the strings i used to figure out when i needed to start the sides.
When you’re ready to start the sides, fold the paper up. I used as little adhesive as possible, so this was a little frustrating and seriously don’t feel bad if you use some glue or something. It would make your life (or at least this project) easier to stick it together a bit with something other than physics.

selective adhesion = lengthy project.
When you’ve got it as tall as you want, just fold the leftover bits at the top back over and weave them back down again; for extra security, tape, glue, or staple the ends.
Hey, it’s a basket!

and there she be.
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