Paper craft · Growing · about 40 minutes
Woven Paper Basket
Uses scissors · Uses glue · Adult help suggested
- Template A (spokes) printed on yellow paper or thin card, 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in (Letter) or A4)
- Template B (strips) printed on blue paper, 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in (Letter) or A4)
- Blunt-tip scissors
- Glue stick
- Ruler (to check the scale bar)
For the grown-up: Help cut the narrow slits between the spokes right up to the bottom square, and hold the spokes up while the first strip goes round.
Safety: Use blunt-tip scissors and cut away from your fingers.
Blue dashes: valley fold (toward you). Pink dash-dot: mountain fold (away from you). Thick line with scissors: cut. Yellow: glue.
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Start. Print template A at 100% (Actual size) and check the 5 cm bar with a ruler. Lay it printed side up.
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1. Cut: Cut out the star shape along the solid line. Cut each slit right up to the bottom square, but not into it.
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2. Fold and unfold: Fold every spoke back along the dashed lines around the square, press hard, then unfold.
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3. Turn over: Turn the star over, so the plain side faces up.
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4. Valley fold: Lift all twelve spokes up along the creases, so they stand around the square bottom with the colored side outside.
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5. Cut: Cut out four blue strips from template B. Each has a small glue end.
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6. Weave: Weave the first strip around the bottom of the spokes: outside one spoke, inside the next, all the way round.
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7. Glue: Where the strip meets its start, glue the glue end over the other end.
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8. Weave: Weave the second strip just above the first, the opposite way: inside where the first went outside. Glue its ends.
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9. Weave: Weave the third and fourth strips the same way, each the opposite of the row below. Push the rows down so they sit snug.
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10. Glue: Fold the top of each spoke over the last strip, into the basket, and glue it inside. Your basket is ready!
If something goes wrong
- A strip goes outside two spokes in a row. Pull it back and count again: outside, inside, outside, inside. Each row is the opposite of the row below.
- The spokes flop over while you weave. Crease the bottom folds again, or clip each strip to a spoke with your fingers until it is glued.
- The strip is too short to go round. Keep the rows pushed close to the spokes so the basket does not bulge, or glue on a spare strip.