There aren’t many people who hate receiving a gift now and again. For many people, it’s the giving of a gift that is more fun than receiving it and this enjoyment is increased when the gift basket is hand-made. Making your own gift basket is a great way of using up your creative juices. Any craft skills that you have learnt over the years can now be employed. But many potential artists are stopped at the outset, unsure how to proceed. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be all that difficult.  Some choices you can have include a wine gift basket and gift basket of chocolate.

Chosing a theme is the very first thing that you should do before making your gift basket. Your gift basket can be about anything. If the person you are buying for enjoys reading then this will give you a clue. Consider a gift basket full of books and top it off with a little book light. In addition to the books, some chocolate may be nice so that they can consume it whilst reading their books. Or perhaps the person your are gifting the basket to enjoys playing a game of chess… Think of stuffing a gift basket with a miniature magnetized set and arranging the pieces in an interesting pattern.

Then get down to the design. It might be that you would like to make a sketch of it of you might just think of the design in your mind. Make a list of materials, sizes and tools. Then, go buying. This can be a lot of fun and it needn’t be a chore.

It goes without saying tha you’ll need to purchase a basket. Essentially, you can buy anything that takes your fancy as long as it’s a suitable size to hold everything you want to inlcude - a traditional wicker container, an antique coffee can, an ancient toy bucket or a contemporary planter. If you can, try to buy a basket that matches the overall theme you have choosen.

Once you have the container and the items, you’ll usually want to be able to wrap everything up. Cellophane is one great choice. However you could also opt for wax paper which is great to work with but also adds an extra element of surprise in terms of opening it.