How To Make A Gift Basket

By Staff

Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 11:00

Do you have a difficult time deciding what presents to give to your friends and family members for birthdays, Christmas or other holidays? With a few items, a basket and a few decorations, you can create a beautiful gift basket filled with gifts that your friends and family will love. Creating a beautiful gift basket is an easy project, even if you have never created any crafts before. Once you have all your supplies on hand, the basket can be easily created.

Gift baskets are extremely easy to assemble, but the final result looks stunning - a true labour of love. Suitable for any occasion, gift baskets can often be just the solution when you can't decide on a particular gift item. You can use different shapes of baskets, with or without a handle, and the size depends on what you want to put into it.

Gift Basket
Materials required: basket - sufficient for the items, cellophane, 2-3 yards of wired ribbon or a ready-made bow, gift tag with string to attach, twist tie, or rubber band to 'gather' the wrapping, items to insert in the basket.

Cut 2 yards of cellophane and lay it on the table surface, right side down, and place the basket in the middle of it.

Arrange all items inside the basket; you can place a cloth napkin or paper doily in the bottom. Position tall items in the centre, with medium items on the outside, and small ones in between. Individually-wrapped candy sprinkled throughout the items, adds a nice sweet touch.

Gather up the cellophane, pulling up the short sides first, then longer sides, and secure with a long twist tie.

Add the ribbon, making a nice bow with long curved tails. Or attach a ready-made bow. Attach the gift tag with string or tape it to the front cellophane.

Resist the urge to 'play' with the cellophane to get it just right - the idea is to gather the cellophane which produces an array of varying sizes of cellophane 'petals' - a unique 'bouquet'. If the 'petals' are too long for your liking, you can trim them with scissors.

Fabric gift box
A fabric gift box made with scrap material and beeswax can add a unique touch to an ordinary gift.

Use a glass or metal loaf pan or any other container you can coat with cooking spray to prevent the fabric from sticking.

Spray the outside of the container with cooking spray.

Melt 1 lb. beeswax. Use a double boiler or melt in the oven at 230 degrees F.

Place the mold bottom side up on waxed paper.

Cut a piece of fabric to cover the mold. The thicker the material used, the sturdier the box will be.

Dip the fabric piece into the melted wax. Completely saturate the fabric with wax.

Drape the fabric over the mold and gently shape it with your fingers.

Cool the wax completely.

Turn the mold over. The waxed fabric should pop right off.

Trim the edges of the gift box.

To create a beautiful gift basket, follow these easy 5 step instructions:

To create the gift basket, start with a basket large enough to hold the gifts you have selected.

Stuff tissue paper into the bottom of the basket to form a base for your items. If you desire, you can add shredded paper stuffing for decoration, it comes in a variety of colors and designs.

Arrange the items inside the basket in an attractive manner.

Take the tulle netting or shrink wrap and spread it out on a flat surface and set the basket in the center.

Gather the netting at the top of the basket and secure it with a pretty ribbon and bow.