Pretty Kitty Waste Basket

The reference to a cat in the title of this piece has nothing to do with the finished project presented this month.  It has everything to do with the container that's recycled for this project, namely, a cat litter jug. 

To create this project we simply cut the tops off of the containers so they resemble a small waste basket.  I did this with a box cutter to start, and finished off with a scissors.  Next, we took scraps of paper and some embellishments and attached them with our favorite adhesive, gloss gel.   This is most easily done by brushing a section of the container with the gloss gel and placing a piece of decorative paper onto the section.  We used paper cut into 2x2 inch pieces.  Torn pieces of paper would also be nice to use.

It's good to start your first row about an inch from the top.  The row that you place above that can then fold over the edge of the container and create a nice, smooth edge around the top, even if your container is cut a little uneven.

As far as choice of paper you could use old greeting cards, pictures from magazines, or old calendars.  When the project was finished one of the activity people took the containers home and coated them with a few coats of polyurethane.  This did not seem to affect the paper or the embellishments.

Besides using these containers for waste baskets, they could also be used to store magazines or mail.  So very pretty, and the residents loved them!