Despite having prettier kleenex boxes around this year (same pattern as last, but blue or pink or purple), I decided not to repeat last year’s Easter basket. I went for origami as the easiest way to make a container to hold tasty chocolate treats.

I used this basket pattern, plus the baby chicken and butterfly patterns from Kunihiko Kasahara’s Creative Origami (the book I learned origami from, many years ago), to make the origami pieces. The paper for the baskets came from my endless supply of gently used wrapping paper; the paper for the chick and butterfly came from my supply of actual origami paper, which remains a surprisingly consistent size over the years.

I filled the baskets with crumpled tissue paper and a variety of foil-wrapped eggs. The blue tissue bundles hold malted eggs, and ended up forming part of the support for the butterflies.

I used the tissue bundles to support the butterflies, by pushing one end of a flat toothpick into the twist of the bundle, and the other end into the folds of the butterfly’s body (no puncturing of paper necessary; the folds are tight enough to hold the toothpick, as long as you don’t jostle the arrangement!).

I didn’t plan this out carefully in advance; I started with “I’ll make baskets with an origami fold and tissue paper fill.” Then I thought it needed something more interesting to decorate it with because I didn’t buy any little toys, and chicks are traditional (that is the 2nd fold I ever memorized) . . . and a butterfly would be a nice touch and oh hey I bet if I stuck a toothpick into the folds of the butterfly I could prop it up better instead of just setting it on top of everything, and from the right angle it’ll look like it’s flying! Hey, look, those tissue bundles might come in handy.

I also thought about making an origami flower, but I didn’t like the look of any of the folds. So the butterfly is going to have to find another place to get breakfast.