girl scout cookie basket

No lambs yet. Maybe the storm we are due to get tomorrow night?

While we wait, thought I would share my latest attempt to create the most popular auction basket ever. This one is a real feel good basket, because you can support the Girl Scouts of America while appealing to everyone's addiction to their delicious cookies. If you have little cookie-selling nieces or granddaughters or friend's daughters or random girls selling cookies in the cold in front of the local drugstore, then so much the better for the happiness you can spread around.

I started by purchasing a box of every flavor cookie. From my personal Girl Scout suppliers, that meant 8 boxes of cookies, but there are regional differences.

I can't bear to throw out those mailer pillows and am always looking for a way to use them.

They made the perfect "filler" in the bottom of the basket,

secured to the basket and each other with a little clear packing tape.

One piece of Girl Scout green tissue paper, crumpled to hide the pillows, 

also secured in place with a little tape underneath.

These four boxes matched each other in size, so I used yet more clear packing tape

(rolled in circles, hidden on the inside) to secure them to each other.

Clear packing tape was a key element in this basket assembly.

Placed in the center of the basket, yet more tape underneath to hold them in place.

The four remaining boxes were arranged "artistically" on an angle on each side,

again with packing tape on the back to hold them in place.

Make sure to get the edges of the boxes tucked into the basket.

The other side.

The finished product, with a green bow on top to keep that Girl Scout theme going.

I thought about putting a plastic display bag around it, but I didn't feel like running out to get one (this was put together at the very last minute). Plus it would go against the spirit of reusing plastic mailer pillows but wrapping it in yet more plastic. All that packing tape meant that it was fairly stable on its own.

It was a very popular basket based on the number of tickets in the cup, out of proportion to total cost and effort required to put it together. This one is joining the lottery tree basket on my roster, despite its seasonal limitations. Then again, it's the seasonal limitations that make it so desirable.