Learn to Make Gift Baskets

It's easy to learn to make gift baskets and they make excellent gifts. The best thing about them is that they can be personalized for any occasion or individual tastes. People love to receive a basket or container full of little gifts that they know were picked just for them. It's fun and easy to make gift baskets. Here are a few simple tips to help you get started.

Theme Ideas
Be creative! Think of the recipient, and what he or she enjoys doing. Choose a theme based on the recipient's hobbies, likes, or tastes. You can assemble a variety of items on any budget. Here are some theme examples that are sure to get you thinking:

• Gourmet Gift Basket (for the cook or food lover): herb vinegars, fancy spices, cooking gadgets, fancy chocolates, and a recipe book.
• Sports Lover Basket: baseball cards, tickets to a game, sports jersey, popcorn, Cracker Jacks, copy of "Sports Illustrated."
• Book Lover Basket: book light, book cover, couple of paperbacks in the reader's taste, book mark.
• Dinner and a Movie Basket: gourmet pasta, jar of good marinara sauce, parmesan cheese, gift card to a video store good for two rentals, box of movie candy.
• New Parent Basket: photo album, frame, funny baby care book, package of diapers, onesie, booties, baby rattle.
• Gardening Lover Basket: packages of flower seeds, potting soil, small shovel, gardening gloves, pretty pot, Miracle Gro.

Other ideas that you can run with: Wine Lover Basket, Poker Night Basket, Tea Lover Basket, Got the Munchies Basket, Pregnancy Care Basket, New Job Basket, Laughter is the Best Medicine Basket, and College Student Care Package Basket.

So once you choose your theme, go out and get the items you will include.

Next step is to find the container. It doesn't have to be a basket! You can put the items in a container based on the theme, or something that you know will be handy after the gifts are removed. Here are some ideas: big plastic bowl, colander, ice bucket, tote bag, backpack, popcorn bucket, sauce pot, flower pot, box wrapped in wall paper, and shower caddy. Choose a container that is the right size and not too huge or too small for the items you selected.

Assembly
Put the biggest items in the back, center of the container. Arrange the smaller ones around and in front. Stuff the bottom if needed, using wrapping paper, the color comics page, or Easter basket grass.

Now, take a large piece of gift cellophane, or colored plastic wrap. Put the container square in the center of the big piece. Gather the edges all around the container, bring them up to the top and tie a big twist tie around to hold it around the top. Then, tie a big ribbon around the twist tie. A gift card can be attached to the ribbon.