Watermelon Picnic Basket Tutorial

*This is the project I shared over at Running with Glitter last week. It's SUPER simple! Requires very few tools and it's just cute. Hope you enjoy it!  Summer means picnic season and every good picnic needs a great basket to pack your goodies in, so, let's make one.

You can grab (almost) everything you'll need at your local craft store, I found mine at Hobby Lobby.

You'll need:

2 rectangle shaped wood plaques

 3/8 inch dowel

and 9 5-gallon paint stir sticks

 (you can buy these at Walmart for .28 cents each or ask at your local hardware store)

You'll need to cut your dowel and paint sticks down to size. I cut mine at 10.5 inches long.

You'll also need to drill a hole into the top of each wood plaque for the handle. Use a 3/8 inch bit and drill all the way through the plaque about an inch down from the top center edge.

Next you'll assemble the basket...

Either nail or glue 3 paint sticks onto each of the bottom and two sides of the rectangle plaques.

 Almost done! Add a bit of wood glue to the inside of each of the holes that you drilled and then slide the dowel into place. 

Guess what? Basket's done! Now on to the fun part...decorating!

You can either paint the watermelon slices onto the plaques or decoupage paper onto the ends like I did. Just trace out the plaque onto your paper, round off the bottom edges, distress if you like, and adhere into place.

Add a few black buttons for seeds, some ribbon if you like and your super cute picnic basket is ready to go! Just pack her full of your favorite picnic goodies and you'll be the envy of the park.

 Enjoy your summer and happy crafting!