Give Your Old Easter Basket a Colorful Makeover

March is National Craft Month and to celebrate Jen Goode from 100 Directions is doing something special. She has invited other bloggers, designers, and crafters to share a project based on a weekly theme, material, or occasion. At the end of each week she'll be rounding things up into one collection, making it easy to find lots of crafting inspiration all in one place. 

This week's theme is COLORFUL; you know I couldn't let the opportunity/excuse to make a colorful project pass me up! 

I absolutely love color, and I've been on a rainbow kick lately. With Easter right around the corner I figured I'd meld the two together and stage a colorful Easter basket makeover. 

Tell me I'm not the only one with a over abundance of Easter baskets. We donate and reuse them every year but with the various celebrations we go to, they just keep multiplying! For this project you can either purchase baskets or use some you already have in your stash. 

In addition to baskets you'll need stencils and paint. I received the following products used for this project from DecoArt. The opinions expressed are, as always, my own. I used Americana Stick on and Mixed Media Stencils, and Americana Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic in the following colors:

Red Hot - Pumpkin Patch - School Bus - Turf Green

True Blue - Eggplant - Purple Sunset

The first thing you'll want to do is position and attach your stencils. This can be a tricky undertaking on the smoothest of surfaces so you can image how it goes on the very uneven baskets. Just be patient and remember no one has to know how much tape you use to hold everything in place!

NOTE: On  the bumpy surface, the larger patterns worked better and ended up with much cleaner lines, as you can probably see in some of the images. 

When you're stenciling remember not to overload your brush. I found it also helpful to work from the outside of the stencil moving inward. 

If rainbows aren't your thing you can always go with primaries or your favorite color.

This is a fun and bright project so don't be afraid to break out the more daring hues! 

In addition to stenciling you can also turn the most vivid of Easter baskets into a stylish catch-all or gift basket. First, you've got to get rid of that long handle. Once it's out of the way, you'll see you've got a handy little bin.  

To remove the handle: 

1. Warm the glued section with a blowdryer. 

2. Use your finger to pop the basket and handle apart from each other; both on the inside and outside of the basket. See image above.

3. Slide out the handle.

From there you can spray paint, stencil, or sponge any number of designs.  

For now we're going to use the red basket in our bathroom and my daughter has called dibs on the green one. Chances are pretty good she'll fill it with fingernail polishes. 

I'm planning on sharing more basket makeovers in the coming weeks 

follow me on Instagram, Vine, and Periscope to see what we can create! 

For more COLORFUL CRAFTING PROJECTS click on the image below to be taken to 100 Directions!