This special Valentine’s Day basket can be given as a gift with flowers in it, then used to hold Valentine’s Day cards or notes! The cone-shaped basket can be made with a variety of printed paper, such as Roylco’s R15309 Art Nouveau Paper or R15279 Celtic Designs Paper. The basket can be used for other gift-giving days like Easter, Mother’s Day or someone’s birthday. Using the R24560 Bouquet Paper is a perfect alternative to picking real flowers that wilt! These vibrant paper flowers can be made with a different design every time, and will always appear as fresh and colorful as real flowers!

You’ll need:

• R24560 Bouquet Paper

• R15305 Renaissance Era Paper

• Tape

• Scissors

The R24560 Bouquet Paper comes with green chenille stems for assembling the flowers together. Each sheet of die-cut flowers features a hole in the center of every leaf or petal base for easily threading the chenille stem through. The first part of this tutorial will show you how to put the flowers together. The second part of the tutorial will show how to make the basket for the flowers.

Each of the flowers and leaf designs in the R24560 Bouquet Paper pack are attached to a backing which you will need to remove. Find at least 2 leaf designs and 2-3 flower designs.  Select one of the green chenille stems and thread the leaves through the stem. Drop the leaves about halfway down the length of the chenille stem. Alternate the direction of the leaves.

Choose two types of flower petal bases and one center piece to join the two together. Thread the largest flower base first through the top of the chenille stem. Thread the second largest flower base, then finish with the center piece. Bend in the end of the chenille stem above the flower bases.

Press the flower petals up against the bend to set the flower’s shape.

There are so many variations of these flowers you can make on your own! Snip off the end of the chenille stem according to the length you need.

Now I’ll show you how to make the basket. All you need to start is a pair of scissors, tape and one sheet of printed paper. Tip: I use decorative scrapbooking scissors for this next step. These scissors add fancy edges to your cutting projects and work great with a project like this one.

Cut a 1″ strip from one long edge of the paper. The strip of paper will be used to make the handle for the basket.

Orient the large sheet of paper so that the long decorative edge is on the bottom. Flip the sheet over to the other unprinted side. Tip: When you roll up the basket to form the cone shape, the outside of the basket will display the printed design. Find the midpoint along the bottom edge and draw a dot on its location. The dot will help you locate the position to create the basket’s cone shape. For this next step, you will need to gently lift both bottom corners of the sheet in toward the midpoint. Overlap the corners at the midpoint. This will produce a triangle shape. Continue holding one corner in each hand as you overlap the corners further into each other. As the corners overlap, they will produce a cone shape. Hint: Do not fold the corners as this will skew the cone shape. Tape the edges of the cone to hold the shape.

Now you can use the paper strip to make the handle! Flip the paper strip over so that the unprinted side is facing up. Tape one end of the strip to the inside of the basket, just beneath the round edge. Curve the handle and tape down the other end to the opposite side.

Here’s a look at the finished basket! Its round cone shape will allow you to make a very thick bouquet of flowers. As the flowers fan out in the basket, you’ll get to see each one looking as gorgeous as the next!

You can fit about 3-5 flowers into this basket.

Roll up love notes or strips of paper with quotes written on them into little scrolls. Place the scrolls into the bottom of the basket then slide the flowers on top.