This is simply the best Easter Bunny Basket craft - with an emphasis on simple!

(click here for a larger Easter Bunny Basket craft image)

Bless Carol Duvall and her easy-to-fold paper boxes. They led us to create this simple but stunning Easter Bunny Basket, perfect for candy tidbits or a single dyed egg at each Easter table setting. Yep - the basket is two-sided and the bunny ears meet in the middle to form the handles!

You may have seen the miniature paper boxes in Carol's book, Paper Crafting with Carol Duvall. You can make a dozen in a few minutes. The other great thing about this craft is how versatile it is. Do you want to embellish your basket with paint, stamps, stickers, bows, flowers, raffia, or bat guano? Go for it!

Or, keep your basket simple and spend a little time decorating the perfect egg to nestle in it.

The wonderful vintage image of the Easter rabbit comes from an Easter greeting, circa 1910. You'll see the link below to download the Free vintage images as a PDF file.

Materials for this Easter Bunny Basket

• Vintage Images (FREE PDF download), printed on matte photo paper.
• Paper, 8.5" X 11", pastel yellow, pink and/or blue (see Tips).
• Ribbon, 1/4", pastel yellow, pink and/or blue.
• Tacky craft glue (like Aleene's).
• Spray glue or glue stick.
• Pencil.
• Ruler.
• Bone folder.
• Scissors.
• Craft knife or small manicure scissors.
• Self-healing mat.

Instructions

1. (For these instructional photos, we are using a striped-pattern paper with a white back so the fold can be more clearly seen) Trim the paper to an 8.5" X 8.5" square. On the back of the paper, use a ruler to draw light pencil guidelines diagonally from the corners. (You are marking the center point of the paper, so you can just draw short lines to form a small cross in the center, if you wish.)
   
   
2. Fold all four corners in to meet at the center point, using the bone folder to form crisp creases.
   
   
3. Fold one of the side edges in to the center and crease with the bone folder. Unfold it, and repeat the folding and creasing with the remaining three sides.
   
   
4. Unfold one flap and make a diagonal cut from the corner to the first crease line, as shown in the photo. Make an identical cut on the other side of the flap. Unfold the flap on the opposite side and make two identical cuts on that side.
   
   
5. Fold the two side points on the first flap in toward each other.
   
   
6. Bring the sides of the box up and fold the two end tabs in toward each other.
   
   
7. Bring the top of the flap over the tabs and down into the box. Do the same at the other end of the box. Pull up the flaps now inside the bottom of the box, rub a coin-sized circle of glue stick under them, and press them back down.
   
   
8. Done! You now have a little box (or Easter Bunny basket), 3.25" X 3.25" X 1.5". Time to work on the bunny.
9. Glue an 8.5" X 11" piece of pastel paper to the back of the bunny image with glue stick or spray glue and let dry (see Tips).
   
   
10. Use a craft knife and cutting mat (or manicure scissors) to cut out the double-bunny image. Don't forget between the ears!
    
    
11. Cut a 13" length of ribbon and glue it around the bottom edge of the basket. Position the ribbon seam in the center of a side that will have a bunny.
12. Tie two small double bows and cut off the tails. (On the blue basket, we used pink ribbon and pink paper backing on the bunny; yellow ribbon and backing is on the pink basket; and blue ribbon and backing is on the yellow basket).
    
    
13. Glue one bunny head to the side of the basket, just above the ribbon seam. Position it carefully so the ears are perfectly vertical and the other bunny head can be positioned on the opposite side of the basket. Hold or clamp the first bunny until the glue is dry. Glue the other bunny head to the other side of the box and clamp until dry. Glue the two ribbon bows on the edging ribbon, just beneath each bunny face.
14. Put some easter grass or florist moss in your Easter Bunny Basket, and add the perfect dyed egg - or a wad of jellybeans or marshmallow Peeps. Cute, cute cute!!!

Tips

• The better your paper, the better your Easter bunny basket. We used a good-quality printer paper, like photocopy paper, but a small-print patterned paper would be great, too. It is important that the paper be opaque and fold crisply. Opaqueness rules out translucent papers like vellum, or very thin papers (unless you don't mind the pencil marks and box-folding innards showing through). Foldability rules out very heavy paper, heavily textured paper, some coated papers, overly-painted paper, and the like.
• You can decorate the paper before or after you fold it. Any technique (paint, stamps, stickers) will work, as long as the paper can still fold cleanly. One technique that looks smashing is comb-painting a small basket weave pattern!
• The best way to adhere the pastel paper securely to the back of the bunny image is with spray glue. But, spray glue is messy and a pain in the neck. We prefer the quick and easy glue stick method: Put the bunny image up against a window glass, so you can clearly see the image through the back of the paper. Rub the glue stick thoroughly over the back of the image. Lay the image face down on a table and place the pastel paper on it. Press them together until the glue dries.