Gift Baskets

When it comes to gifts, I always prefer giving something personal to my family and friends, something that's useful to them. Gifts baskets perfectly match the description and ofcourse they look beautiful too. Recently for our house warming party, I created gourmet food baskets as hostess gifts. Our basket had Mango Nectarine jam, Apple Almond bread, Roasted spiced nuts and white wine. Except for wine, I made the rest at home. My Sis and Sis-in-law did an amazing job of gift wrapping these baskets.
It's very easy to put together a gift basket that looks very elegant and professional. You can buy individual items from store and assemble them all together. The contents can vary depending on occassion like Baked goods, chocolates, jams, cheese, wine, fruit, bath products, candles....etc.
I will post the recipes for Mango Nectarine jam, Apple Almond bread, Roasted spiced nuts soon but here is the proceduce to make a gift basket.

What you need:

1 Wicker basket (Dollar store is the best place to get this)
1 Roll of Cellophane transparent plastic wrapping sheet (Can find them in any craft store)
Decorative ribbon and bow
1 Tissue gift wrap sheet (Again Dollar store is the place. You get 20 or so in $1 pack)
Paper shred or old new papers

Steps to follow:

1. Take the wicker basket, line the bottom with paper shred or old news papers (crumble them).
2. Set up your contents in the basket to check if paper cushioning is enough. You can place more paper on one side to get different height for contents.
3. Now take the contents out and cover the bottom paper cushioning using tissue wrap. Tuck excess tissue to sides of the basket.
4. Place the contents so that they sit sturdy in the basket. Let tall items lie flat or at a low angle (ex: wine bottle)
5. Cut cellophane sheet with length atleast more than twice of basket size. If there is excess you can trim but not the other way. So have little extra to start with.
6. On a table, place the basket in center of cellophane sheet and bring all sides of sheet to top of the basket. Tie it firmly as a bundle with ribbon.
7. Cut excess if needed and stick a decorative bow.