After trying this cardboard basket out around our house and garden, I realized it’s just the right size for a lot of things we do: picking flowers for an arrangement, gathering herbs from the garden, driftwood at the beach, and of course summer berry picking.

It’s a cardboard replica of this old market basket that I came across this summer while we were clearing an out building at my parent’s place.

Looking at the wood that the basket is constructed from I realized that it was similar to cardboard in weight and strength, and cardboard might make a really great basket too.

I also thought this would be a great project for experimenting with weaving cardboard. I have to say I was really excited about how beautiful the cardboard looked woven and also by how strong it was! I used Ikat Bag‘s suggestion of working with cardboard pallet liners and they were perfect for this project.

(Note: You can see in the picture that the middle woven piece has been taken out. I have since modified the directions below to make the basket stronger and the handle more sturdy. You want that middle piece to wrap up and around the sides to make the handle and then staple it together.)

You will need to cut:

3 pieces  2″ x 26″

4 pieces  2″ x  21″

1 piece   2″ x  30″

1 piece 5″ x 44″ or 2 pieces  5″ x  22 ” stapled together

Align your pieces.

Crease on the 21″ and the 26 ” pieces 7″ from the edge. (Weave the strips together as pictured above to form the base (the 2″ x 30″ piece is the middle strip that forms the handle. Crease the piece 11.5″ from both ends.))

Fold the 5″ x 44″ piece so that it forms a 7″ x 12″ rectangle and staple it together where it overlaps.

Weave the strips from the base through your rectangle. Binder clips are handy here to help you keep everything together.

When you’re done, staple the 2 handle pieces together, and then fold the side pieces up and over (or tuck them in) and staple them to the basket.

All right then………hopefully the “”picking up blocks basket” catches on.