Make a cute treat basket from a paper plate!

In today’s post: Learn how to turn cheap paper plates into adorable paper plate baskets with these easy to follow folding templates.

Ok, some of you are already thinking: seriously? This lady is trying to convince us we can’t just deliver cookies on a paper plate anymore, and that we instead we have to fold it into a “treat basket”? Ain’t nobody got time for that!

If you are thinking that, it’s all good – I get it. I don’t have time for lots of things people expect from a “blogger”: my house isn’t really decorated, my kids regularly go to school in mismatched outfits they (obviously) chose themselves, and I certainly don’t cook dinner every night because eating cereal twice a day never hurt anyone.

This little paper plate hack takes just a minute and really does make your homemade or storebought treats look pretty darn cute. But that’s not the real reason I like it. The real reason is because I can buy the super cheap plates to make these baskets instead of spending money on the fancy ones. Yep, I’m really that cheap.

I have three different templates you can print out to learn how to make different shaped paper plate baskets. You can keep them plain:

Or spruce them up a bit once you’ve filled them with goodies:

Paper plate treat basket templates

Each of these templates is made to work with a standard 9 inch paper plate. These work best with the cheapest, thin paper plates because they fold easily – look for store or generic brand plates.

Here’s a quick video that shows how to put each basket together, and the downloads for each basket follow.

How to make a square paper plate basket for muffins

This is what the square template looks like.

Click here to download the square basket

Print out the template on plain printer paper, then cut around the outer circle. Place the template on top of a 9 inch paper plate, and then cut along the solid lines. Next, fold along all the dotted lines, as you see in the video. You’ll end up with a square basket with four sides and little tabs that wrap around two of the sides. Staple the tabs to secure the basket.

This basket fits 4 standard muffins. I like to line the basket with wax paper.

How to make a rectangular paper plate basket for cookies

This is what the rectangle template looks like.

Click here to download the rectangular basket

This basket is put together the same way the square one is: cut along the solid lines and fold along the dotted lines, then staple the tabs at the corners to secure. This one works holds a nice row of cookies: