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How To Make A Gift Basket Like A Pro!
By Kristine Mulholland, Fri Dec 9th
Gift Baskets make great gifts for every occasion; they are funto give and fun to receive! Have you ever wondered how to make abeautiful, professional looking Gift Basket? Well, you are aboutto learn how!
Since you have probably already decided who you are giving thegift basket to, and for what occasion, then the first step is towrite down a list of your recipient’s interests. By making alist like this, you can decide what kind of theme your giftbasket will have, and what kind of gift items you will include.Does your recipient like cooking, gardening, reading, golfing,fishing? Is the gift basket intended for a specific occasionsuch as the birth of a new baby, or a particular holiday? Theanswer to these questions is where you will begin to make yourown gift basket.
Pick a container. You can use a traditional basket as yourcontainer, or you may want to use something entirely different.If you are making a gardening gift basket, why not choose a claypot, or if you are making a fishing gift basket, you could use atackle box as the container. You could use a colander for acooking “gift basket”, or an Italian theme basket. You could usea child’s small wagon, or a large toy truck as a container for achild’s gift basket. The possibilities are endless! Just letyour imagination run wild.
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Now, refer back to the list of themed gift items you madeearlier. You will use these items to build your basket. Addingpre-packaged food items into your basket is always a good idea!People love treats! You can also use, wine, champagne, nuts,non-perishable cheese spreads, crackers, popcorn, candy, orwhatever special items your recipient likes to snack on. If youare making a basket for a new baby, you could use baby powder,baby shampoo, baby bath wash, hooded towels, bottles, rattles,receiving blankets and the like. Pre-packaged food mixes, suchas pancake mixes, brownie mixes, cookie mixes and so forth makegreat items for housewarming baskets. Maybe you could use askillet as your container, and add some wooden spoons,potholders etc. Let your creativity flow!
Now it is time to begin to assemble your gift basket. Here is alist of items you will need, they are all available at yourlocal craft store:
1. A Container (basket or something else) 2. Foam blocks, newspaper, bamboo skewers, clear tape, scissors,wire cutters, GlueDots (optional) 3. Your gift items 4. Silk flowers, eucalyptus stems, or other items to “enhance”the basket. 5. Cellophane wrap, wired ribbon (for the bow), and shred orcurling ribbon to match the general color scheme of your gift.
You need a base in the container to stabilize and place youritems. You can use floral foam blocks (available at any craftstore), or you can use craft paper, or newspaper. If you areusing foam blocks, cut the block to fit inside your container,you might have to cut the blocks in several pieces and themconnect them together with bamboo skewers. Be sure to leave alittle space between the interior edges of the basket, and thefoam. Place some
wadded up newspaper in the bottom of yourcontainer to set the foam blocks on top of. You might want towrap the foam in tissue paper first, although this is notnecessary, but it will keep the green foam off of the giftitems.
Now use the bamboo skewers and the tape to place “stakes” on theback of each gift item. Make sure to leave about 1-1 ½” of thestake hanging over the edge of each item. This is how you willstake the item into the foam so that it won’t move around. Placetaller gift items in the back of the basket, and smaller itemstoward the front. Before you “stake” the gift items, set them upin the basket to see which items will fit best where. Designwith an eye for an overall pleasing shape to your basket,distributing the weight of gift items evenly. Tip: Layeringitems at different heights in the container makes the overalldesign more pleasing. To do this, simply leave more of thebamboo skewer hanging over the edge of particular items, so thatthey appear taller when you stake them into the foam.
As an alternative to using bamboo skewer “stakes” to place youritems, you can put pieces of wadded up newspaper in thecontainer, and then use your hands to smash down “pockets” inthe newspaper (or craft paper) where your items can be placed.You can then use GlueDots to hold the items in place. You wouldput one or two GlueDots on each item, and then secure it to theitem next to or to the container itself. Tip: make sure that youdon’t put too many heavy items all in the back of the container,as it will make the basket tip over.
After all of your items are secured in the container, fill inthe empty spaces with shred (available at craft stores) orcurling ribbon. Now you can really get creative! Use the silkflowers, eucalyptus stems, or other items you bought asenhancement, and place them into the foam around the sides, andalong the back edge of the basket. This is the finishing touchfor your beautiful gift!
Now it’s time to wrap the basket in cellophane. Spread thecellophane out on a flat surface, placing the basket in thecenter. To cut to the desired length, hold up one end of thecellophane, and the other end that is still attached to theroll, and bring them together above the basket, making sure toleave at least 5-6” extra cellophane above the top of thebasket. After you have cut the cellophane from the roll, bringboth ends together above the basket, then pull up the othersides of the cellophane so that all of it meets in the middleabove the basket. Take a piece of curling ribbon, and tie thegathered cellophane together with this. Now gather the excesscellophane above the curling ribbon into a bunch. Cut the bunchstraight across leaving 4-5” of cellophane above the curlingribbon. Now you can fluff out the remaining cellophane above thecurling ribbon. Finish the basket with a beautiful hand-tied bowusing the wired ribbon!
Congratulations! You did it, and I bet it looks great! About the author:Kristine Mulholland is a Gift Basket Designer in Salt Lake City,Utah. To see her beautiful Gift Baskets visitwww.aheavenlybasket.com
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