WITH NYREE CLARKE
Often, you will have a collection of baskets given to you, or that you have admired and acquired. 
This project is a great way to make a special basket a centrepiece for any  occasion, or to glamorize  a basket for a  lovely gift
Pick your ribbon colours to  go with the event colours or traditional colours required for the occasion,  and  go through your dried 'treasures' you have saved over the years to find what you need for this quick project.
Nyree used:
dried anthuriums
skeletonised Bells of Ireland
Nyree air dried both these in her garage, after using them fresh in a design."I never throw anything away," she said.
You will also  need:
small pine cones
dried poppy seed cases
blue, silver, and glitzy ribbons (available here)
a gold bell
a small piece of rope
gold and silver spray  (available here)
cold glue(available here)or hot glue with a glue gun.
a basket
a silver tray
Click here for a larger view

Ribbon around the handle

Add the bell and bow		 Spray the basket all over with a light covering of gold spray paint. Let  it dry and repeat with a light covering of Silver spray paint .Let it dry.

Using the glitzy ribbon, wrap it around the handles in an even way so a little of the handle colour still shows through. Glue  both ends tidily.

Wrap the small length of rope around the top and glue into place. If your handle is large you may be able to use a small nail to do this.

With the sheer ribbon make a small bow and add to the top, attach a gold bell to hang underneath, and add a small dried flower in the middle of the bow.
 Now it is time to be creative.

Select from your dried material 'treasures', plant materials that complement each other, with texture, form and colour, all being an appropriate size to be in proportion with your basket size.
As you can see from the  groupings Nyree used, pictured on the right, she used the pine cones to add texture, the dried anthuriums for a round form with a smoother texture, and the skeletonised Bells of Ireland to add a light lacy feel.

The anthuriums were sprayed lightly with silver spray paint, and the poppy seed heads (not shown) were sprayed gold. A modern look would use no more than 5 different types of plant material.

Glue your chosen plant material into interesting groupings, around the edges of the basket. Each grouping should be different to add interest, but with the same plant materials used, to give unity to the design. 

For the basket Nyree used she made 5 groupings. This gives a pleasant coverage of the basket without being too full of plant material. You will have to decide the number of groupings you need based on the size of your basket. Usually an odd number is best.

Hot glue, or cold glue the plant material in place around the basket, remembering to use the whole area. You don't want plant material  just glued around the top. Have a close look at Nyree's placing and you will see she has  extended the group from the top to the bottom of the basket base.

Groupings of plant material

The bows		 The finishing touches are the bows. Take 2 lengths of ribbon in colours to complement your glitzy ribbon on the handle. In this case Nyree has used silver and sheer blue. Make two loops and  secure in the middle to make a simple bow.Cut the ends on a diagonal.
You may need 7-9  of these to add to each grouping singly  or as a pair. You will decide this as you  hot or cold glue them into place.
Turn the basket  frequently, and stand back and look at the overall design, to decide where to place these.
Now add the silver tray in the middle and you are ready.You made need to add some padding under the tray to raise it up in the basket.
Load up the tray with fresh fruit, nuts, sweets or whatever is appropriate for the occasion and you have a winner!
The Ribbons

We have  similar ribbons to those Nyree used available by the metre. We have them in the red, blue, silver and gold colour choices with matching glitzy tape so you can reproduce Nyree's design ideas with your own colour scheme.
All are 38mm wide , $US 1.95 a metre plus postage. We will cut to the length you require.

The glitzy ribbons for the handle are also available. Narrow width, ½cm wide,  the light blue being slightly wider at 1 cm, they are all US .30 cents a metre plus postage