Mother’s Day calls for inventory additions. But in a tight economy, it makes sense (cents!!!!) to plan purchases carefully so that whatever you buy can be used into multiple seasons. This design makes the best of cross-over inventory. The boxes (Boxco) are vibrant enough for spring and summer general occasions, and just the right blend of perky and pastel to work beautifully for Mother’s Day. Gardening-theme gifts are also good general occasion gifts, since this theme can be used for get well, to cheer you, thanks, birthday, and a host of other events.

The gifts used in this design were a bit pricey (about $30 retail from a local gardening store), so it was important to fill space in the large container efficiently. To do so, a coordinating gift box (matching the large base) was turned at an angle and this filled almost half of the base container. The elevation added interest to the design and provided added value to the smaller packets of muscle soak arranged in the box. By putting a fluffy bow inside this smaller angled box, the space is filled nicely, and the design is soaked with color! Finished and wrapped, the impressive Mother’s Day design stands about three and a half feet tall. With items purchased retail, the gift would most likely bear a finished price of $90 - $125. With wholesale gift components, the finished design would be more in a good selling range of $65 - $80.

Design Note: The curved lines of the leaf-shaped knee pad bring out the line motif in the boxes. Excellent find (Tuesday Morning) at $1.99 retail.

Gift components used in this design:
- tall cone of potpourri
- flower pot accents (mushroom and flower)
- gardening gloves
- gardener-theme hand lotion and bath gel
- muscle soak salts
- herbal sachet
- floral-theme garden ornament
- leaf-shaped knee pad

Containers used in this design are from Boxco.

Clients on a budget? This idea may solve the problem! Easy-to-pack gabled boxes can be quick-packed with a trio of gourmet treats. Wrap it up with a ribbon and sell, sell, SELL! James Hartier of Twisted Basket -- the designer -- says these are great gifts for private lage, hotels, convention gifts, party favors, hostess gifts, drop off gifts and referral gifts.

With thanks to designer, James Hartier of twistedbasket.com, here is a top o’the morning idea that just might bring you a bit of luck this St. Patrick’s Day. Filled with sweet treats, a lucky charm or two, and Irish sippers, the basket is a delightful gift. Suggest it as an office Lucky Day prize for corporations to use as a prize in a Pot of Luck drawing. It is also a fine gift for a student who could use a bit of luck on an upcoming exam, or as a “Go get’um” motivator for the person going for a big job interview. You’ll think of dozens more reasons to go along with the great design.

Any ideas YOU want to share? GBR welcomes photographs with open arms! Share a great idea with a readers and friends at GBR. Send ideas, articles and photos to: dpaulk@mac.com. Love to hear from you!

Purple Majesty Gift Basket

Consider a change in color motif for the Thanksgiving season: purple. Taking a cue from the beloved song, America The Beautiful, a gift basket in this motif makes a beautiful sentiment and exquisite centerpiece before the gifts are taken out and enjoyed.

Pack a basket with grapes, pasta, bread, wine, and other meal-makers. BEAUTIFUL!

In tough times, consumers expect more value. Give them their hearts desire this fall with a gorgeous gift basket that doubles as a table centerpiece. Packed in this basket: gourmet coffee, a tin a cookies, a votive candle holder packed with candy, and “blooming buds” of candies wrapped and wired on stems, then inserted into the design. Watch for this design and more coming in the 4th quarter issue of Gift Basket Review Online magazine, posted in September. www.gbreview.com.

What better way to beat the heat of summer than to think about the cool cash you will be bringing in this holiday season? Summer is prime time for putting together holiday plans, inventory strategies, brochures and catalogs. With a recession-tinged holiday coming up, it might be wise to think about inventory along more resourceful lines.

Keeping a majority of inventory in non-seasonal packaging means you can keep selling it through expiration dates, even if those dates go far beyond the Christmas season. However -- and this is a BIG however -- putting a segment of stock into seasonal packaging is VERY SMART.

Coffee is a common stock that can be used in virtually every gift basket theme. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to stock up on coffee in holiday packaging. Add a solid red mug (that can cross over into Valentine’s Day), and a touch of holiday-themed enhancements, and a year-round gift basket becomes an instant HOLIDAY best seller -- with just ONE specific holiday item.

There are not many products that I have personally endorsed through my 25 years as an editor in the gift field. But Don Francisco coffee is a gift item that has consistently earned my vote as an inventory “must-have”. The packaging is classy, and the taste is so good I personally buy it every week as the coffee of choice for our home.

You can’t go wrong with this brand on your holiday inventory list.

Debra Paulk, editor
Gift Basket Review Online

Everyone will be wild about this gift! Moms will love the sentiment and gifts, and YOU will love the option of crossing over Valentine merchandise into Mother’s Day. For those of you just starting a gift basket business, you may find yourself buying merchandise retail, in order to keep inventory low and avoid wholesale minimums. If that is the case, be sure to grab those 80% and 90% discounts on leftover Valentine jungle-theme merchandise. You’ll be able to use it for Wild About You themes for Mother’s Day -- and buy retail at prices that will give you big markup margins.

Can you pass up 90% discounted merchandise? No, I can’t either, as long as I can visualize how to sell it tomorrow. That’s exactly what I’ve been finding the last couple of days as I’ve shopped at some of the big retail chains.

Today at Hobby Lobby I found pink marabou feather mini boas for only 20 cents each. Sorry, but I bought them all to use around the edges of spa baskets. Also marked down to pennies where stick-on jewels -- perfect accents on plain metal buckets. Beautiful white mugs with fillagree hearts were available for 60 cents each, and I can’t wait to use these in sweet, feminine coffee and tea baskets for Mother’s Day. And there was so much more -- a virtual plethora of value for the resourceful designer. Hope you get there tomorrow and find a great deal for yourself!

And the markdowns continue! Today, at Hobby Lobby, I was downright knocked out by the bargains! If you have a store in your area, check out the 80% discounted items. At these prices, it can be good to buy a little retail -- just those odds and ends to extend your themes.

At only $3.99 (regularly priced $19.99), this blue jean and bandana themed wooden box is a dream find. It measures 11” across, 7” tall, and 8” on the sides, the generous proportions made it ideal for $50-and-up budget. Use the lid separately to make a shallow tray gift. For only $2.00 (regularly priced $9.99), the fringed matching message pillow fills a lot of space and adds fun text (If the boot fits, buy it in every color).

Packed with chocolates and a photo frame, the entire ensemble costs about $15 to make. Easily, with the size of the container, this gift basket could retail for $45 -- with the buyer getting a good deal, too.

You would have never heard me say this a few years ago, but in today’s heavily discounted retail world, you CAN buy retail and still have room to earn a big profit. Shop wisely and grab the bargains when you can!

After-Valentine markdowns are getting serious! At 70% discounts, buying a few items at retail can make sense and save dollars -- especially when you just want a few things here and there to add a bit of variety to your gift basket inventory.

This adorable 18-inch cheetah is a good bargain at $2.99. To make it work in every day baskets, all I had to do was snip off the hot pink love pillow. Paired with tropical rain-forest themed spa gifts, the cheetah can anchor a great “Wild About You” birthday, get well, thank you -- virtually any ocasion. Watch for the completed gift basket. I’ll give you a quick preview in a couple of days.

Saving money is more than just smart business. In today’s environment, it is essential to survival. A few years ago the JUBILEE! convention sponsored a competition where designers could enter ideas for crossing designs from season-to-season. Here is a great example of how inventory can keep moving by simply changing one item, and transitioning ribbon and florals to the next season’s theme. On the right, a Noel snack bag of crackers makes the design appear to be wholly holidays. On the right, snacks from the same manufacturer are used, but the label is changed to reflect a Valentine motif. All the other products remained the same. The poinsettia was changed to a rose; shred colors moved from white to red and gold; and a holiday ribbon was replaced with Valentine hearts. Perishables moved from one season to the next -- seamlessly.

As long as the foods are still fresh and the date has not expired, any unsold foods in a set like this could move into a birthday or thank you gift the day after Valentine’s. What would you do to change the look? Bet you’ll have some great ideas!

Disregard the date on the photo -- I was actually in Vermont in October (cropping is one of those technical things this blog software snags on sometimes). My good friend Deb owns The Gingerbread Country Store on Highway 7 and she was gracious to allow me to take photos of some of her gift baskets. This is one of my favorites -- a wooden old-fashioned milk tote packed with pancake mix, maple syrup, cocoa, and homespun dish towels. Although Deb says most customers forego the container and choose a simple gift parcel (a shipping box), I love the look and the ‘souvenir-sentiments’ of the tote. Deb is a smart cookie for knowing and catering to her customers’ wishes, though, so she packs up their merchandise selections any way they want them. Nice work, Deb!

Made in Vermont is a theme that may not be flashy, but it continues to sell, year after year. The Gingerbread Country Store (Highway 7, Middlebury, Vermont) offers a wide variety of regional food and gifts, and offers gift basket and gift parcel service. Shown here, pancake mix, syrup, maple sugar candies, jams and homespun kitchen towels fill the hand-hewn tree block basket. Due to the cost of the container, customers often opt to have the fine Vermont products packed in a gift box rather than the basket. Samplings of regional products like these are shipped nationwide year ‘round.

Look what you can do to the back of a box bench! A decorative focal point on the back can pave the way for moving merchandise that may be too small or short for the space. Place a fluffy bow, a short square box -- use your imagination for resourceful ways to move merchandise.
(Box, box bench and ribbons courtesy of Nashville Wraps)

L

diaper cake photo edited

Diaper cakes make a beautiful shower centerpiece. On the practical side, it is a useful gift for the mom-to-be. Plus, the diaper cake can provide an activity for the shower when guests are asked to guess how many diapers are in the cake.

This two-stack awesome cake uses 140 diapers. It measures 55 inches in diameter on the bottom, stands about 2 feet tall and weighs over 5 pounds. Each diaper is individually rolled in a cellophane wrapper, keeping the diapers clean and ready for baby. Wrapped in cello, the diapers can be tossed individually into a diaper bag or purse for on-the-go changes.

To make the cake, roll the diapers in a strip of cellophane. Tape the cello end to keep the diaper from unrolling. Line the inside of a hatbox with a shrink wrap bag, sized to fit the interior of the hatbox. Place the rolls upright in the shrink wrap bag inside the hatbox. Keep adding diapers until you can’t squeeze another diaper into the bottom. Pull the bag up just an inch or two above the rim of the hatbox. Apply heat to shrink the bag. Pull the bag up another inch and apply heat to shrink. Continue pulling up the bag and shrinking it until the circle of diapers is firm. Tie off the bag and trim it.

Add ribbons and other decoration as desired.

A video showing how to make this incredible diaper cake will soon be posted for members at Gift Basket Review Online (www.gbreview.com).

(I took this diaper cake to a baby shower and everyone LOVED it! Plus -- I took home 6 orders for future baby showers. This diaper cake with 140 diapers took two hours to make. The cost of the diapers, cello, shrink bag and ribbons was $25. Each cake sells for $75 plus, depending on the gifts attached to the top.)

Wow -- what a wild gift basket! The jungle theme is fun, eye-catching, but . . . is it profitable? This design was created for a competition, where points are earned more for presentation than practicality. Even so, this design would still turn heads AND generate a profit by doing just one thing: scaling back a bit on the enhancements.

To be practical, this gift basket needs just a touch of jungle greenery, and it would need to be placed so that the basket could be wrapped for delivery. Placement options:
1. Put a pot of live tropical plants to the left or right. Gather cello over the middle of the basket, leaving the plants outside the wrap.
2. Attach a permanent spray of jungle-themed enhancements near the front side of the container. The cello can lightly cover over the permanent spray during delivery.
3. Save the greenery for the bow on the cello, and only use just enough to get the theme across.

It’s a jungle out there with competition at every turn. One sure way to move ahead of the herd is to keep looking for innovative presentations. This basket was created for a gift basket competition some years ago (sorry -- designer is unknown), but the presentation still looks fresh and exciting. Look at all the techniques:
1. layered solid and patterned ribbon
2. zebra patterned tissue/fabric textural accent at the rim of the basket.
3. a striking product (tiger packaging) at the focal point of the basket. (You could wrap a product in an animal print found in scrapbook supplies, or a greeting card for example)
4. tiered height with placement of gift basket components
5. interesting angles of component placement

Good gift designs can hold their age -- and this one was great!

Gift totes are affordable alternatives to woven baskets. But, because most are made of paper, laminates, and lightweight plastics, the totes need a little support to hold products. A new video is available for download at www.gbreview.com. In it, you’ll see three ways to add support to a paper tote. The video download is free to members.

Towel origami has practical applications for gift baskets. Not only has towel origami proved itself as a hit with cruise ship guests, it is fast becoming a craft gift basket designers are using to help clients save money. The towels can be shaped into functional basket containers, complete with handles and a bottom that will support lightweight gift and/or gourmet components. Shown here, a kitchen towel is folded into a basket that can hold packets of coffee and a mug -- a perfect and inexpensive house warming gift.

Download the video to learn how to make the towel origami gift basket at www.gbreview.com. The video is free to GBR Online members, and available for a nominal charge to non-members.

What kind of shred do you use in your gift basket? Hopefully, your answer is “it depends”. Shred is available in different textures, material type, and weight, in addition to all the rich assortment of color and style.

Which shred you choose to use depends on three factors:
(1) the container
(2) the products to be packed
(3) preferred style

To determine the type of shred you may need, here is a brief overview of shreds and usage.

Types of Shred

1. Wood Excelsior: heavy, coarse shred with great support for heavy gift components.

2. Crinkle Shred (other trade names may be used, but the shred has a zig-zag appearance): medium weight with good support for moderate to heavy gift components.

3. Parchment Shred: medium weight with good support for moderate to somewhat heavy gift components.

4. Tissue Shred: light to medium weight with good support for light to moderate gift components. Best for totes, small gift packages, and shallow baskets, or to add texture and color as a decorative top layer over a more supportive base layer of shred.

5. Cellophane Shred: light weight with less support than other shreds. Good for totes, small packages and shallow baskets, or to add texture and color as a decorative top layer over a more supportive base layer of shred.

6. Metallic Shred: similar uses to cellophane shred.

8. Shred Blends: mixes of shreds that combine support shreds with decorative elements, such as cellophane and/or metallic.