Here are ideas to make filling and decorating your Easter baskets more fun and creative for children and adults alike.
1. Give your glue gun a workout and turn plain wicker baskets into Easter fantasies. Explore your favorite craft store for beautiful ribbons, silk flowers and paint. If you like, you can select details on the wicker basket such as the rim, handle and strips around the center, and use a small paintbrush to paint with pastel colors. Remove the stems from silk flowers and, using a glue gun, glue flowers along the handle, around the rim of the basket or, for a real extravagant look, all over the entire basket. Wrap two or three lengths of pastel-colored ribbon around the handle and tie into a bow.
2. Make paper candy cones instead of traditional baskets to fill with treats. Hand cones out at the egg hunt, or hang on a child's bedpost or doorknob early Easter morning. Cut heavy decorative craft paper into a 12-inch square. Trim one edge of the square with pinking shears. Bring two opposite corners together and roll paper into a cone, with pinked edge overlapping plain edge. Glue edges together (use a paper clip to hold until dry). Use scissors to trim the top corner of the paper to level out the rim of the cone. Punch holes on each side of cone and thread with grosgrain ribbon to form a handle. Decorate with ribbon, rickrack or beads. Fill the cones with a little Easter grass or raffia, and fill with candy and small treats.