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WRAP IT UP -- Gift Basket Tips and Tricks
By Karen Booy, Westcoast CRAFTLINK

(Tips courtesy of Classic Packaging, Vancouver, BC)

Gift Giving?
Gift Baskets make a wonderful gift giving alternative during the festive season. Create your very own gift basket that has style, flare and even some of your very own creations! Do you bake, make jams or jellies, or create your very own Christmas ornaments? Give your handmade goodies to friends and relatives in a beautiful gift basket, they'll never believe you did it! Keep reading and see how easy gift baskets are to create...

Craft business?
Gift Baskets can be a great way to package and market your product. Increase your sales by creating attractive groupings of your product and market them to your customer in a gift basket. Not only have you answered their gift giving dilemma, you've solved the problem of wrapping it!

How do you start?
Gift baskets look best if they are a grouping of products with a common   theme. The theme could be a color (products that are all purple for someone who loves that color), an activity (a bath, a spaghetti dinner), an occasion (birthday, anniversary, Christmas) or a hobby (golf, quilting, reading romance novels), you get the idea. Be creative and group a variety of products together. See how they look together.

Next: Components of a Gift Basket

• wrapping material for basket (cellophane is a common wrapping material. It can be found in clear and in colours.)
• contents (use your imagination)
• shred (the stuff you fill your container with. It comes in a wide variety of colours and types.)
• basket or container (baskets and containers come in all sizes, shapes and colours
• decorating embellishments (floral picks, ribbons, miniatures, bells, mini wreaths - be creative!)

How to Put your Gift Basket together -- Step-by-Step!

• choose a container
• place shred in container
• arrange basket contents on shred using an isometric placement
• cut wrapping material 3 times the size of the container
• place container in the center of wrapping material
• holding wrapping materials at ends, bring up to the center of container
• gather wrapping material just above container, tie a small piece of curling ribbon
• tuck in the loose ends of wrapping material
• embellish gift basket at point where wrapping material is tied
• use embellishments that coordinate with theme of gift basket

Gift baskets will wow your friends, family, or customers!

Thanks to Classic Packaging of Vancouver, BC for their creative suggestions on gift baskets!

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