Many people are running successful businesses making gift baskets. Despite its apparent simplicity, gift baskets can be quite difficult to do well unless you know a few helpful tips. Gift Baskets can be sold just as easily online, as from a storefront. If assembled securely, they can even be shipped.
Some Occasions For Giving Gift Baskets
| Corporate gifts |
Weddings |
Shower Gifts |
| Get Well |
Care Packages |
Birthdays |
| Anniversaries |
Valentines Day |
Christmas |
| Mothers Day |
Fathers Day |
Grandparents Day |
| Bon Voyage |
Congratulations |
Just Because |
| Secretaries Day |
Bosses Day |
Thank You |
Have you ever tried your hand at making gift baskets, only to find that they look a little less than professional? You can make them look beautiful, too. You just need to know a few insider tricks.
Fill before you fill.
After you find a container you might be tempted to place all your wonderful gift basket items inside, wrap it up and call it good. Well, that's not good. When you see a beautifully prepared gift basket all the contents should be visible. So how do the professionals do this? They use filler. This can be wadded up newspaper, tissue, or basket filler shred. This filler should be packed fairly tightly into the container and come right up to the top or close to it.
If using a decorative basket shred, it is not necessary to cover your filler. If using newspaper or tissue, however, you should cover the surface with something in case there are any gaps between the items in your gift basket. Typically you would just use decorative basket shred. But you can always get creative and use something that suits theme of your gift basket. Cloth napkins could be used for a cooking basket. A receiving blanket for a baby shower basket. Even a shop cloth for an auto basket. Use your imagination.
Choose products.
Choose the items for your gift basket with the size, shape, color and texture in mind. Gift baskets should be viewed from in front, not above. Consequently, you will need some height in your product selection. This is especially important if the container you are using has no handle. Ideally you should have one or two items that provide height for your gift basket. This item will provide a backdrop for the rest of the product in your gift basket. You should also choose items in a range of sizes from small to large. Avoid items that might clash with one another. A fluorescent baby rattle in a sea of pastels will overwhelm everything else in the gift baskets.
As much as possible try to have the products in your gift basket relate to each other. A spa basket full of soaps, lotions and the like could easily contain other items like jewelry, a scarf or CD, but a garden trowel or sports mug might be out of place.
Balance matters.
When you begin to arrange the contents of your gift basket, pay close attention to the weight of each item, color and scale. You want these things to be equally distributed throughout the basket. Weight is of particular importance, or you may find that the basket wants to tip over. Start with the largest/heaviest items and try to keep those more centered. Use clear packing tape to hold heavier items in place. You can use double sided tape or sticky dots to keep other items in place. This will prevent things from shifting later. Try to avoid placing breakable items next to each other if at all possible. If this is unavoidable, place a bit of tissue between them. Continue adding items until the basket is filled.
Stand back and see if it looks balanced and attractive. Be sure to check the back as well. It should look nice from any angle. Check to make sure everything is snugly in place and tape things down if necessary. Double sided tape or sticky dots work well for this.
Wrap it up.
Cut a piece of clear cellophane to enclose your basket. Be sure to cut it oversized. Now place the basket on the cellophane, centering it front to back and side to side. Have a piece of ribbon at hand and then draw up the front and back of the cellophane to the top of the basket. There should be a generous amount of extra cellophane above the basket handle. Scrunch the cellophane in one hand at the basket handle, with the excess above your hand. Use the ribbon to tie it off.
Now with both hands free, bring in the sides of the cellophane and tape. If necessary, pull up on the cellophane through the ribbon so that it is snug. Place a large bow over the ribbon and dress with hanging ribbons as desired.
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