Pondered Primed Perfected: fruit basket

2/16/13

Colors of Springtime ~ DIY Farmers Market Baskets

Wouldn't it be nice if it were springtime already? I'm craving the things that come along with spring.

Today we were blessed with some golden warm sunshine here. It came close to 60 degrees! Just a little tease for us Pacific NorthWesterners. We're pretty much guaranteed a couple months of rain still.

So a magical day like today is just what we needed to tide us over until those beautiful sunny months are finally upon us.

A little "fix" of pure sunshine will get us through the gray, wet months still to come.

You know what else reminds me of springtime?

Fluffy Clouds and Rainbows

Tree Blossoms

The Smell of Fresh Mown Grass

Short Sleeves

Kids Voices and Laughter Carrying On the Breeze

Ladybugs and Butterflies

Evening Strolls and Bike Rides

Hammocks

Planting Gardens

and

Farmers' Markets

Last summer I created a white Anthropologie Knockoff Farmers Market Basket (Below).

Say that a few times quick!

I used one of the cardboard baskets that berries come in and coated it with some Gesso (used to prime and stiffen artists' canvases), white spray paint, and spray polyurethane.

You can read about it HERE.

I thought it would be fun to make more using some spring colors, so I got busy mixing my Gesso with acrylic craft paint until I had the pastel colors I desired.

Once they were painted I got all glittery-eyed and decided they needed some glitter too.

The Gesso makes them really stiff and the polyurethane makes them water proof.

The glitter just makes them cheerful!

Then I dressed them up with ribbons and filled them with a few little trinkets.

These will make adorable mini Easter baskets or fun little gift baskets for friends.

In the first basket I put some raffia, a Sweet Little Bluebird, and a mini egg.

The next one got some pretty seashells and a silver starfish.

Gifts from the Seashore.

This next one holds some fragrant lemon body treats. I love lemon!

I haven't decided what to do with this Tiffany Blue one yet. Its my favorite, with the gleaming organza bow. I might just have to keep it next to my bed for holding jewelry and other stray stuff. :)

These were easy to make and didn't cost anything since I already had the cardboard baskets saved from last summer. The Gesso, paint, glitter and polyurethane were already in my craft cabinet.

My Inspiration:

Anthropologie's Farmers' Mkt Baskets

Here's to more sunny days and laughter being carried on the breeze!

Sherry

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7/28/12

ANTHROPOLOGIE's got nothing on me

Sometimes I see something and want it so bad...no matter how frivolous or unnecessary the item is. Do you ever feel that way?

Maybe it's nostalgia...bringing back memories of when I was young. I can recall many warm summer days, trips to local farms and eating our fill of sweet summer berries before taking our bounty home for making jams and crisps with the family. My mom was always so good about those things! Yeah, those were the days...

ANTHROPOLOGIE has some very eclectic, colorful home decor and accessories. I've seen some really cute things. I like their funky colors and unique qualities. How I would love to get my hands on some of their offerings. Especially a darling ceramic fruit basket that looks just like the little green cardboard pint you might find holding berries at your local Fruit Stand or Farmers' Market.

See this little cardboard basket?

Anthropologies' Farmers Market baskets are made from stoneware cast from real fruit containers and come in several colors. Check out the link below if you are interested:
http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/product/home-kitchen-gadgets/20744306.jsp

But personally, I wasn't ready to send them my money. I decided to see what I could do with what I had. So I grabbed my little cardboard basket and some spray enamel paint in white and gave it several good coats on all sides. I made sure to really get it into the cutout areas and edges too. Even the bottom:

It took several coats to give it good coverage over all of the green cardboard. After it was dry I picked it up and realized it still felt and looked more like cardboard than ceramic. So I took some of my Gesso, which I use to prepare canvases for painting, and gave the basket another good thick coating using a paint brush. When it finally dried the basket was substantially more stiff and solid than before. My final step was to give it two generous coats of a spray polyurethane to gloss it up and seal it.

I'm sure it could not be considered "food safe". It's more for staging, if you know what I mean. If I do use it to hold fruit I will probably line it with a coffee filter to be safe. I don't mind. It was easy and fun and it turned out darling...just like ANTHROPOLOGIE'S! It will look great sitting in my open cabinets in the kitchen or out on the table holding "whatnots".