I remember the day that Conner and I decided to move in together very clearly because it was a day filled with so much joy and excitement for a new chapter in our lives. Everything really just fell perfectly into place for us to live together in Hershey, PA. We weren't sure at first if it was going to work out but luckily we both got jobs in Hershey, PA that we were both really excited about and it just seemed right. I know y'all don't know a lot about our backstory so I'll just give y'all a quick recap. We started dating a little over 3 years ago, the second semester of our freshman year of college at Clemson University. My roommate at the time (who is now a close friend and continued to be my roommate throughout college) was Conner's cousin and we all went to Clemson so Conner would come hang out at our apartment sometimes and we just started out as friends but eventually I started to see him as more than that and so being the straight forward person that I am, I just cut to the chase and told him that I liked him and I wanted to go out on a date with him and so he asked me out and that was it. Now fast forward 3 years and we live together in our adorable apartment in Hershey, PA with our adorable 10-month-old puppy.
Anyways, the day that we decided to live together I started to come up with decor ideas for our apartment. I spent a couple months slowly collecting and making things to put together and create our first living space together, I wanted it to be perfect. We have lived here now for a little over a month and I am still doing stuff everyday to continue to decorate it. This blanket basket is something that I have been wanting to have for a while to hide our obnoxiously colored blankets in (lol). Conner is a huge Green Bay Packers fan and has a blanket that is obnoxiously green and of course we have several bright orange Clemson blankets. This basket is a great way to hide these blankets when they aren't being used. It also helps so that your couch isn't cluttered with blankets. I had been shopping around for one for a while but I wanted a tall one and these things are not cheap to say the least. That's when I came up with the idea to make one. I already had some rope in my closet and a glue gun and that's really all I needed. So here is how I went about making it.
Supplies Needed To Create:
Approximately 150 feet of 3/8 " rope of any kind or color (I used sisal and jute but you can use any kind just make sure that it is sturdy enough for the size of basket you want, also the amount of rope you need will depend on how big you want your basket to be, I used about 150 feet for the height of mine which is about 2 feet tall)
Approximately 100 mini glue sticks
A model for your basket (I used our laundry basket but I wanted it to be rounder than that so I just used it as a general model and then made it more round, you will build the rope basket around this model)
Parchment paper
Scotch tape
Lighter to singe the rope
Estimated Time To Create: 2-3 hours
This craft is actually very simple. It does take a little while because it is a lot of repetitive gluing and wrapping the rope but it is very easy to do. Remember that hot glue guns get very hot so be sure to use caution and don't touch the tip of the glue gun to your skin or get the hot glue on your skin as it will burn your skin.
Step 1: You will first want to wrap your model for your basket in parchment paper so that the glue doesn't get stuck on the model. Hot glue doesn't stick to parchment paper once it dries. I used scotch tape to secure the parchment paper but it is really hard to get stuff to stick to parchment paper so you will just have to use a lot and make sure you press it into place.
Step 2: Once you have the parchment paper in place you will want to start gluing the rope into place. First curl the rope into a circle and glue it to itself. You will then want to wrap the rope around itself and continue to glue it. You want to get some of the glue on the parchment paper so that it momentarily sticks to the paper while it is still hot and you are still forming the circle so that it stays in place. You will continue this until the circle is just a little bit wider than the model. You can see this in the picture below.
Step 3: Once you have the circle complete you will want to flip the model over holding onto the rope. You will then want to continue gluing the rope but now you will be gluing it on top of itself while wrapping it around the basket so that it wraps all the way around the model. As you can see in the picture below, I made the basket a little wider than the model. I also used two different types of rope so that there were two different colors and I did half of the basket with one color and half with the other color. You could also alternate between colors to create a pattern of the different colors or you could use just one type of rope and have one color. I just had two types of rope and I wanted to see how the two colors would look together so that is why I did it that way. You will continue wrapping and gluing until the basket is as tall as you want it to be.
Step 4: Once you have the basket as tall as you want it to be you will create the handles. You will continue gluing until you get to the side that you want the handle to be on. You will then loop the rope so that it hangs off like a handle and then continue gluing. You will do this on the other side and then continue gluing a little bit just to where it is almost to the first handle you made. You will then use scissors to cut the rope and use a lighter to singe the loose ends. Once it is tight you can glue it to the basket. You will want to go back and put a glob of glue on each side of each handle where it connects to the basket so that it is secure. Once it is all dry and you pull it off of the model you will want to pick it up with the handles and that way you can see if it feels secure and you can also see if there are any spots where you missed or the glue didn't stick and you can add more hot glue there. Once you do that you're all finished, you have a fully functioning rope basket that you can use for whatever you want.
Thanks for reading guys! I hope you all enjoy this simple craft that is a great home decor item. As always email or DM me with any questions you have about this craft or anything else. Until next Saturday...keep crafting on my friends.
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