Sunday, August 2, 2009

DIY Flower Girl Basket

Again, me with the knock-offs! I swear sometimes I feel like I don't have an original bone in my body. This time, I'm channeling a lovely Etsy shop called Y & E Bridal. They sell a lot of cute stuff, one thing that caught my eye was a flower girl basket. She had two versions, one with doves and one with little finches (or some kind of non-dove bird, not sure what it was). They were cute as hell. A little pricey for a basket in my opinion, but cute all the same.

But even in their cuteness factor, the baskets weren't exactly what I was looking for so I set out to do it myself.

Purchased at Hobby Lobby for a whopping $2.99!

I already had some moss that I had as a color reference for work, so grabbed a handful of that. Seriously, it was no more than a handful.


I know I hate dealing with hot glue and hot glue guns, so I intended to use very little. I started stuffing the little basket crevices around the rim, using my fingers and some tweezers on smaller areas.


The dreaded hot glue gun! After I got as much moss in as I could with my hands and no glue, there were a few light areas that had to glue moss on to. Did I mention I hate hot glue? It just gets everywhere.


I also got a set of four little finch-like birds at The Lobby for $1.99! They come with little wires stuck in them, so I positioned them on the edge of the basket and wrapped the wire around once (you can see the wire on the second photo below). I secured it in place with hot glue.


I tucked some more moss around the glue on the bird and on the inside edge of the basket, just to hide the glue.

I have a ton of extra ribbon that I didn't use on my invitations, so I just took two pre-cut lengths and tied bows at the base of the handles.


And voila! My own little flower-girl basket. Since I had most of the supplies for this, it cost me less than $6.00 and is exactly what I wanted.


I think from start to finish, the whole thing took me 90 minutes, tops. I was also scrolling through Google Reader at the same time, so I can't be sure how much time it really took. I might add a little more moss later on, but I think I like the moss-minimalist look.

I am now looking at three knock-off things from my wedding: my OOT Bags (thank you Wedding Chicks!), my Reception Fun booklets (thank you Guestbook Store!) and now my flower girl basket (thank you Y & E Bridal!)! But isn't that what all these websites are for? Inspiration? I do hope so.

What are you knocking off inspired by?

P.S. Don't forget to enter to win a copy of Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Weddings! Go here to enter!

6 comments:

  1. cute! you know your flower girl will love carrying this!

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  2. What a great idea! My florist quoted me $30 for the flower girl basket - this gives me the courage to just try one myself!

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  3. I am inspired by YOU! I have some DIY projects that I have been putting off due to time, excuses in general. I will have to move forward and get 'em done!

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  4. very cute and affordable project!

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  5. Ooo! Pretty! The FG is going to LOVE it!

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  6. Thanks a lot for sharing these flower basket ideas. All these inspirations are very useful for me. Actually I want to throw a backyard party on my parent’s anniversary and I think flowers would be best decorations for this bash. I wonder if you can suggest some good online Flower Delivery services too in Chicago.

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