Dragon’s Den star Sara Davies behind £37million crafting empire reveals how to make a Easter basket at home
MOST of us have binged our way through box sets by now, so it could be time to unleash our creative side and make something artistic.
The crafting industry has seen a boom in customers since social distancing came into force with department store Liberty’s reporting a four fold increase in sales of their arts and crafts kits.
And you don’t have to be a dab hand with scissors and glue to make something eye-catching, anyone can do it.
Dragon’s Den star Sara Davies, 35, has created a £37million empire from her love of crafting and now she’s sharing her passion with Sun readers in an easy step-by-step Easter craft.
Sara, who runs crafting website Crafters Companion, says: “We’re seeing hundreds of new customers visiting our site every day and I’m so thrilled that people are turning to craft to de-stress, unleash their creative side and keep busy.”
The Hartlepool-born entrepreneur has put together this easy guide for a stylish Easter basket to get you started.
Easter basket step-by-step guide
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- Paper / Card
- Scissors
- Glue
- Ruler
METHOD:
- Start with a square piece of paper or card and fold into three equal squares. For instance, if your piece of paper is 12” x 12” you need to fold at 4” and 8”, turn and fold at 4” and 8” again.
- With the paper in front of you, cut up into the two vertical score lines. Repeat the same thing on the opposite side.
- To strengthen the basket, line each square on the inside with more paper / card. Make these squares 1/4” smaller in size to give a border and ensure the basket will still fold up easily.
- Bring the sides of the basket together by gluing two outside squares to the square in between them. Repeat this on the opposite side.
- Cut a strip of the paper for the handle. Like the inside of the basket (to strengthen) take a slightly thinner piece and glue in the opposite side. Now stick the handle to the inside of the basket and there you have your Easter basket.
- Now to create the flowers to decorate. Cut some different size circles (these don’t need to be perfect).Then cut each circle into a spiral.
- To create the flower start with the outer part of the spiral and begin to roll into the centre. Once completely rolled glue into place.
- Once you have made all of your flowers, cut some leaves from your paper and decorate your basket. Now it’s ready to fill with some Easter treats!
She says: “I thought it was very topical to make the Easter basket. What I love is once you now how to do it, you can adjust it up or down.
“We’ve suggested a size which is great to put some little Easter eggs in but you could do miniature versions and use them as favour boxes or do a large version and put in some dried flowers in.
“I want to give readers a versatile project, now all you need to do is pop to the shops to pick up the chocolate Easter eggs!”
Crafters Companion broadcast a craft tutorial everyday at 11am on YouTube and Facebook.
Find out more, visit: www.crafterscompanion.co.uk.
How to get into crafting
Where to craft:
It all depends on which craft you’re getting into.
If you’re getting into sewing you will need a lot of space so a spare bedroom would be great where you can get a sewing machine out and leave it set up.
If you’re just into colouring you just need a little box where you can keep your pens and pencil, I like to do it on a lap tray in front of the telly. For the Easter basket a kitchen table would be perfect.
How to start:
YouTube tutorials are a great place to start.
Craft is all about learning and it’s so much easier to learn by watching videos from the comfort of your home.
On my website Crafters Companion we have thousands of tutorials for people to look at where you can learn anything from card-making to quilting.
Where to get help:
There’s lots of information on the web, especially on Facebook.
There are hundreds of Facebook groups where people are willing to help each other out.
I am a member of a load of groups where we will get a newbie in who doesn’t know where to start or is stuck on a project and 30 people will reply with advice!
Crafters love seeing new people getting into their hobby.
The essentials:
All you need is good quality glue like a tape pen which is nice and quick.
Try and steer away from PVA, which is quite wet and could spoil your craft.
Then you need some nice pretty papers and you’re good to go.
You can do anything with nice papers and some good glue!
The benefits:
Everybody’s all about mindfulness nowadays and it’s just the modern day version of having ‘me time’.
It’s all about relaxing, de-stressing and customers always tell me that they got into craft for a way to switch off from work.
Crafting is no longer about the little old lady knitting, everybody is doing it – even millennials.
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