Have you ever seen those enormous, beautiful, overflowing gift baskets and were so jealous that you couldn’t do that on your own? Well, you can! Here are some tips to get you started.
- Your basket- The container that you use should reflect the theme of the basket. If you are going for a generic theme any pretty basket will do, but if you have a theme such as for a baby shower, use something original, such as a diaper pail or diaper bag for your base. A gift basket for someone that likes to garden could be put together in a metal tub that can be used for planting later on. Get the picture? Be unique!
- Line your basket- One thing that the store bought baskets do to look fuller is to pad the container with tissue paper. It helps to not only make the basket look fuller, but it helps to be able to place things in an attractive manner because you can use layers of wadded tissue to raise the height of certain items to have an attractive display.
- Fill your basket- Filling your basket is the fun part! Items can be found anywhere. Dollar stores sometimes have pretty baskets as well as a wealth of items to fill your basket with. Food items tend to be a popular item with gift baskets and can be found everywhere. Online stores and specialty food stores can provide lots of unique and original food items. Again, be unique. If you are doing a gift basket for a baby shower, use not only cute baby things, but items that will be useful as well, such as diapers and bottles.
- Wrap and decorate your basket- Wrapping comes in many ways. One popular method is to buy a gift basket kit. They usually contain a cellophane bag to insert your basket into, ribbons for tying, and a name tag. Another way to wrap your basket is to buy the heat sensitive cellophane which tightens up from the heat of a blow-dryer to hug your basket. You can also buy rolls of cellophane in a number of patterns. Again, the dollar store is a great place to find this. Then tie your wrapping up with colorful ribbons and bows. If your basket has a theme, use something that goes with your theme to decorate. For example, with a cooking themed basket you might use copper cookie cutters and a wooden spoon wrapped in your bow. Whichever way you decide to go, have fun with it.
Below are some suggestions for themed baskets. You can use these as written or incorporate your own ideas as well.
- Baby Shower-Use a diaper bag, a diaper pail, or a baby bathtub as a container. Use diapers, towels, or receiving blankets as lining. Fill with bottles, bibs, clothes, toys or layette items. After wrapping decorate with pacifiers, rattles, or other baby toys.
- Cooking theme-Start with a large mixing bowl, use a kitchen towel or pot holders for padding, and fill with recipes, wooden spoons, measuring cups, soup or cookie mixes, cookbooks, etc. After wrapping, use cookie cutters or wooden spoons to decorate.
- Wedding Shower- This one will depend on the type of wedding shower. If the theme is lingerie then use your own imagination based on the persons personality, but for a typical shower use some of the following for a gag gift. Your container could be something for the kitchen such as a dishpan. Line with kitchen towels. Add lotion for dishpan hands and other items to insinuate the whole housewife scenario such as cookbooks, a dust buster, dryer sheets, and an apron. Decorate after wrapping with recipe cards and refrigerator magnets.
- Gardening Theme- Start with a planter of some type. Line with grass proof sheeting. Fill with seeds, gardening gloves, knee pads, hand tools for gardening, etc. After wrapping, tie a big sun hat to the handle for decoration.
