Pretty in Pink {Ruffles}

I recently helped organize a baby shower for my best friend who was expecting twin girls... I say "was" because the girls are now a month old, I've just taken forever in getting current with my craft projects!  

My inspiration for this project was a super cheap basket I got at Michael's in the outdoor clearance bins and this oh-so-pretty 2" pink ruffle ribbon, also on clearance!  When I making a list of everything I had and then needed to do for the party, I decided this basket would make a great prop to hold all of the thank you favors... chocolate covered pretzel rods, of course!  

I debated spray painting the basket a white or pink so it was a seamless project but time was against me, especially considering I did this in the middle of the night - you know basically feels like the middle of the day when you have a newborn as I did at the time.  

So I started with my basket and did a mockup by just pinning to the ribbon a couple different ways to see how I wanted to do final placement for the most aesthetically pleasing view.  Once I decided how much overlap I wanted each ribbon row to be I warmed up the hot glue gun and started wrapping away.  I used the glue gun because it was the best adhesive I could fine in my craft bins that would keep the ribbon attached to the basket; originally I wanted to be able to remove this ribbon and switch it up for various functions but thankfully it was a cost-effective project.

The one above looked too much like a ruffle skirt so I decided space them out further and only do three rows instead of four... much happier with the result below.

After we assembled the favor bags/tags/ribbons I filled the bottom with tissue paper to have a smooth even surface and we filled the basket with our chocolate covered pretzel favors.  Voila!  Pretty and function :)

Last minute change to the basket included adding a thinner polka-dotted ribbon around the handle.  It helped to have something on the handle so the whole basket coordinated and made sense rather than just decorating the bottom part.

At the restaurant, we decided to add frames to either side of where the basket was sitting.  The side facing the entrance was a copy of the shower invitation, and the other side was a note thanking our guests for celebrating the highly anticipated twins soon to arrive!

Invitation & Favor Tags: Baby Buns Designs, Etsy