MUSICAL EASTER BUNNY BASKET TUTORIAL

Hello, friends.  Hope all's well for you this Thursday!

This is going to be a quick tutorial for those of you who asked how to make the bunny baskets.  First let me apologize, as I mentioned in the post for the baskets, the loopy chenille is extremely hard for me to find and I had just enough supplies that I needed to complete my bunnys; therefore, for this tutorial I will be using left-over loopy which is red and a piece of blue from the project I posted for the baskets.  I know these aren't appealing colors but it's all I have and the only reason I have this is because  it was extra from a red and white bunny basket for Valentine's Day a friend asked me to do, so it'll have to suffix for this tutorial.

What you will need:
1. Any round round basket, plastic bowl, or box ( the container size determines bunny size)
2. Giant Loopy Chenille (about 3 pks for a small basket; 5-6 pks for a medium, and about 6 - 8 for a large)
3.  One (1) contrasting color Giant Loopy Chenille for inside of ears and paws
4.  Plastic eyes
5.  Pom-poms (small and medium) and 1 large pom pom for the tail
6.  About 1/4 yard thin wire or wired thread for the whiskers
7.  Small music box (if desired, but optional)
8.  Lots of glue sticks (I mean lots)
9.  One styrofoam ball cut in half (medium size for small and medium size bunny and large for large bunny)

Directions:
Determine the colors of loopy you'll be using.  Loopy comes in a package of 3 yards:

1.  First measure the length of one of the bunny paws according to the size container you are using (you can refer to my basket post for an idea); next double the length of loopy for one (1) paw and cut it; next, cut 3 more lengths of loopy this same length.  These four lengths of loopy will be used for the outer 4 paws.  Put them aside.

2.  Now cut 4 lengths of loopy one-half the length of the first four lengths in the contrasting color.  These will be the paw inserts. 

3.  Take one the outer paw lengths of loopy and fold in half; next place the contrasting color on the inside:

4.  Glue the insert loopy strip to the inside of the outer loopy piece.  It will look like this:

Put this paw to the side and continue to do the other 3 remaining paws in the same manner.

5.  Next take your round container and starting from the bottom of the container starting wrapping and gluing the loopy around the container keeping the loopy rows straight and close together as you cover the container; just wrap around and glue as you go like this:

This will be the body of the bunny.  Put the covered container aside.

6.  Take the half ball of styrofoam and beginning from the center start wrapping the loopy around the top of the ball until it is covered.  I don't have another styrofoam ball left either so I'll demonstrate on this plate round:

Keep wrapping around until the top of the ball is covered.  After covering the front of the ball, do the same to the back.  This will be the bunny's head.  Always remember to keep your rows of loopy straight and close together.

7.  Now determine the length you'd like your bunny's ears to be according to the size of the head; next cut 2 double lengths of loopy and 2 half lengths of loopy for the inserts, and glue just as you did with the paws.  Put aside.

8.  Now you have the head, body, paws, and ears.  Using the bunnys I posted as an example, glue the body parts together.  If you add a music box,  glue it between the 2 front paws at the base of the container front and cover with a larger pom-pom as the bunny tail (be careful to glue around the edge of the music box only -- not directly on the box, otherwise it won't play)  Now when you cover it with the tail and press the tail it activates the music box to play.

9.  Add the plastic eyes, and use the pom-poms for the nose and toe pads on the paws; tuck the wire whiskers in place beneath the nose with small dabs of glue.

10.  Dress your bunny up and decorate as you wish!!!

If you need any more help, please let me know but, although it looks complicated, it's really very easy.  If you find loopy to complete this project, I'd sure love to see what you did with it -- PLEASE!

I'll be seeing you!