Re-purposed Grocery Basket

by jordan.pollard in Craft > Reuse

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Re-purposed Grocery Basket

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So I recently moved into a new condo down here in humid NOLA and I found out that many of the neighbors had old shopping carts of stores long gone that they used to not only transfer items from the parking area to their apartments, but also for the evening shopping trip to our corner store which required more than two hands. 

The shopping carts being used by the neighbors were standard fare, but we wanted something a bit more glam. We were torn because we didn't know how we were going to acquire a cart, and we were totally against stealing one. I checked craigslist and didn't have much luck, until one day I saw one in a pile of junk on the side of the road that was destined for the landfill!

What you see is very simple, but totally fun and we def get some strange looks (as well as compliments) when at the store.

Here is what you will need:

Old shopping cart acquired legally (seriously don't get in trouble over something silly like a shopping cart)
Black spray paint
Beads (we used mardi gras beads)

We look forward to also using this next Mardi Gras season.  That ice chest full of beer gets heavy!


Acquire, Clean, and Paint

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Step one is to acquire an old shopping cart and clean it up. We used soap and a big scrub brush. 

We then sprayed the entire thing with black spray paint. We did this to limit rust growth, and also make it a bit snazzier looking

Beads!

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Step two or whatever you want to call it is all about the beads.

So when we did this project, we had just gone through Mardi Gras which provided us with tons of beads for multiple projects. 

For this cart, we cut the beads and wrapped them at the bottom and twisted them over themselves. Using this method, they will totally hold themselves in place. We then just wove them through the metal grid of the kart and then twisted them on to themselves again to hold them in place.

To finish, keep going until you have enough of the basket covered. 

We kept the bottom and "seat" area free of beads and anywhere we planned on putting items to prevent them breaking. Good thing is that if any breaks, it pretty easy to fix!

So, a pretty easy project, but totally fun and looks snazzy.