Twist or Treat Basket

Materials:

one bundle orange & one bundle black paper twist
glue gun and glue sticks
paper grocery bag
one sheet of white felt or other white fabric or tissue
black paint or a black marker
cotton balls or other filler for the ghost's head
string to tie the ghost's "neck"
stapler w/staples (optional)
orange or black tissue paper & gluestick or craft glue (optional)
orange & black paper shred (optional)

1. Untwist all of the paper twist. You can let your little ones help.

2. First, keep the bag folded closed and cut off about 5 inches at the top (figure A).

3. Find the natural crease in the bag and fold the top down at that point, folding the bag into itself (figure B).

4. Cut four pieces of orange paper twist long enough to reach from the top edge of the bag down the front, underneath the bag, and back up the rear. Allow about an inch or two on each end to glue the pieces to the inside top of the bag. These are your front-to-back pieces.

5. Cut two pieces of orange paper twist long enough to reach from the top side of the bag down the side, across the bottom and back up the other side, again allowing enough extra to glue an inch or two inside the bag. These are the side-to-side pieces.

6. Cut three pieces of black paper twist long enough to go all the way around the outside of the bag.

7. With hot glue, glue one end of the four front-to-back pieces of orange paper twist to the inside rim of the basket. Pull the length snugly around the bottom of the basket and glue the other end on the inside rear of the basket. Don't worry about how the ends look--you'll cover that up later. Try to glue the ends of the strips as close together as possible, but don't worry if the strips don't completely cover the bag--weaving the black twist through will cover up the rest of the bag.

8. Glue one end of a side-to-side piece to the inside top side of the bag. Pull the piece down the side to the bottom of the bag and weave it over and under the front-to-back pieces on the bottom of the bag. Then glue the other end to the inside top of the other side of the bag. Repeat this for the second side-to-side piece until the bag is covered with vertical strips of orange paper twist (figure C).

9. To add the bottom row of black twist: Feed a piece of black paper twist over and under the orange strips all the way around the bag. Where the ends meet, glue them to the bag itself underneath the orange strip.

10. For the middle row of black, repeat the process above, but start by going under a piece of orange that you went over in the previous step. This will create the basket "weave." Glue the ends to the bag underneath a strip of orange, like above.

11. Repeat this process for the top row of black. This time, you should feed the paper twist over and under the same orange strips that you did for the bottom row, gluing the ends in place the same way (figure D).

12. This completes the basket. To make the handle, braid three pieces of paper twist (two orange and one black, or vice versa) and staple the three pieces together at each end. Then glue or staple each end inside the basket. If you staple the handle to the bag, be sure to staple underneath the outer rows of paper twist. It's ok if the staple shows on the inside--you'll cover that up.

13. Place a few cotton balls or waded-up paper in the center of a piece of white felt or other fabric. Gather the fabric around the balls to create the ghost; tie off with string. Draw or paint on a black mouth and two black eyes--or use wiggly eyes or felt pieces. Use hot glue to apply the ghost to the basket. Note: You can also use a small pumpkin, leaves, a mini-scarecrow--anything you can make or buy at the craft store that looks like Halloween or fall. For Easter, try eggs or a bunny, and for Christmas, a tree or Santa would work.

14. Line the inside of the basket with tissue paper (applied with gluestick or craft glue), or glue rows of the paper twist around the inside. Fill the inside as you wish.