Foam Flower Basket Tutorial

Foam Flower Baskets

            Personally for me one of the best things about having a crafting hobby is being able to make little little things for my daughter [she is so super appreciative!! Wink!]. Well all the little flower baskets you see are going to be party favours [ or return gifts as we call them here in India!] for my daughters Birthday in May. Last year we had an Egyptian theme party and you can read about it here : Picture frame tutorial , Scroll Invitation card tutorial , DIY Mummy tutorial ]

I am not a party girl and find organizing parties very very stressful but my little girl just loves to plan even the tiniest details of her birthday party so this year I decided to have a headstart to decrease my birthday party organizing jitters !

Foam Basket

Foam is an ideal material to gift to kids as it can withstand quite a bit of squishing , dropping and tugging without falling apart!  We plan to fill our little baskets with candy to gift the kids! Making these flower baskets were super easy and FUN FUN !

Materials Required

Foam - Though I generally say use thin foam for foam flower tutorials , to make these baskets, thick foam is preferable as you need your basket to be sturdy

• Cut foam in Flower shape in contrasting colors to make the leafy base and flower basket.The base flower is slightly smaller than the flower used to make the basket
• Foam strip approximately 1 x 7.5 inch long [ cut from an A4 sheet to foam] to make the basket handle
• Optional - foam to make foam bows

Glue gun-- indispensable when working with foam!

Scissors- the one you see is the Tim Holtz scissors- I love using it to cut foam as its serrated teeth grasps the slippery foam so beautifully!

Foam Basket Materials

To cut out the  4  1/4 inch dia and 3  3/4 inch dia flower shapes,  I used the 2 largest dies from the Sizzix framelit flower set [ also used in this Interactive Swinging card]

Sizzix Framelits

If you dont have this particular die dont despair... the tutorial works for any hand drawn and cut flower shape...you can even click on the image below [to enlarge it] and trace over the shapes shown below to use as a template

Flower Template

I got the idea for these cute baskets from this site [and she even has proper hand drawn templates]
How to Make the Foam Baskets
Cut the larger foam flower in the groove between the petals towards the center but not reaching it as shown in the pictorial below

Foam Basket tutorial 

Apply a little bit of glue...[not too much or  the excess glue will not only burn you but give unsightly glue marks on your project] on the edge of a petal as shown and overlap an adjacent petal over it and hold for a few seconds!

Foam Basket tutorial 

Keep applying glue and sticking adjacent petals

Foam Basket tutorial

And soon you have a flower shaped basket!My first basket didnt look as neat as this one as I applied far too much glue and it left marks !

Foam Basket tutorial

The green foam flower shape you are going to use as the base for your basket can be left as such or jazzed up a bit with inks and white/ silver pens.

Foam Basket tutorial

Apply hot glue to the center of your base

Foam Basket tutorial

And stick on your flower shaped basket.

Foam Basket tutorial

I made smaller flower baskets and inserted it inside the large one to give a fuller look! You can leave it as such to hold candy or other knick knacks or convert it into a proper basket by adding a handle

Foam Basket tutorial

I used a 1 x 7.5 inch strip of green glitter foam and used hot glue to stick it inside my foam flower basket

Foam Basket tutorial

Since foam is such a malleable material this will be one of the easiest handles you make!

Foam Basket tutorial

Added a scalloped foam die cut [ Spellbinders ] on some of the basket handles .

Foam Basket 

Nothing can beat a "bow" to make something look cute !I used a Life style crafts die to make a glitter foam bow to add to the basket handle.

Bow

My little girl suggested we add pearls to the bows on some of the baskets!

Foam Baskets

Added Tattered lace rose die cuts to glamorize the inside of the baskets.

Foam Flower Basket 

Experimented using felt too and the violet basket you see in the picture below is made of felt!

Foam Flower Baskets

Our baskets are in a riot of colors...and I am hoping the children will like them!

Foam Flower Baskets

My little girl had so much fun coordinating the colors of her baskets  In all we made 21...I think we need to make at least a dozen more!

Foam Flower Baskets

I hope you  like these little Party Favours!
Edited : Where to buy Foam ? : Check local stationary shops and dedicated craft shops listed in this link Craft Supply Stores in India