Valentine Basket with Beaded Handle

I found this in a group I am in, Shelly had posted it and I fell in love with it! I really loved the handle that she had made for the basket. Shelly was nice enough to allow me to add her tutorial. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Here is the link to the original posting http://paperandflowers.blogspot.com/2011/02/valentine-basket.html. This is for original basket, the tutorial for the handle is found here http://paperandflowers.blogspot.com/2011/02/beaded-handle-tutorial.html. 
She has some really cute ideas - from what I have seen she stays away from the typical square cards and creates adorable items for her children.  Cannot wait to see what she creates in the future!

Valentine Basket

After I had the basket with the blue angel sitting on my desk for a couple days, I got to thinking that these baskets would make good Teacher's gifts for Valentines Day! To make this basket more in line for Valentine's Day, I used pink, white, and red streamers at the bottom of the basket. I also used pink and white beads on the handle.

The Valentine clip art was a freebie from Dover Publications. If you sign up for their newsletter - they will include free clip art. This clip art was a timely freebie! EDIT: Click Here to find the free Valentine clipart from Dover!

Beaded Handle Tutorial

Supplies Needed:

Wire - approximately 16 inches length

Beads - 6 various shaped and colored beads

Crimp Beads - 8

Crimping Pliers -or- Flat Nose Pliers

Wire Cutter

First cut the wire to approximately 16 inches in length. I used a 20 gauge wire, because that is what I had on hand , but I am sure you could use almost any gauge!

The next thing you need to do is slide a crimp bead into the wire - any place along the wire is fine. The purpose of the crimp beads is to hold the beads in place (and later to safely secure the handle to the basket). In the photo below the crimp bead is the silver bead next to the pearl bead.

Next crimp the crimping bead with your pliers. You can use either Flat Nose Pliers or Crimping Plieres - the Crimping Pliers just makes it look more finished. Using Flat Nose Pliers: simply gasp the crimp bead with the flat section of the pliers and squeeze tightly to flatten the bead. Using Crimping Pliers: place the bead in the back channel of the crimping pliers - and squeeze the bead flat (this back channel will flatten the bead and put a dent into the bead). See photos below.

Next turn the flattened bead on its side in the front channel of the crimping pliers - squeeze bead again to make it rounded.

Next, slide various beads onto your wire - and use some crimp beads to secure the beads in place. The spacing is not important!

Once you are finished securing your beads into place, you can add the handle to the basket. Thread the wire thru the hole in the side of the basket. Bend the wire up to form a loop and cut the excess wire off with wire cutters. Next slide a crimp bead onto the wire and put the loose end of the wire into the crimp bead (see photo below).

Next crimp the crimping bead. This crimping bead is important as it will securely hold the tail of the wire in place. Repeat this step on the other side of the basket and you are DONE.