Nail Polish Box

Last weekend we spent the day with Kyle's family. One of our nieces and nephews had a ballet recital  Saturday evening. But earlier that day their Mom planned a small surprise party to celebrate their older sister's upcoming 16th birthday. I tried to remember what I got for my 16th birthday… I won't say how many years ago that was, but I will say it was long enough that I don't remember the gifts.  :) 

So what would we get a 16 year old? I remembered that over the past few months she had posted a few pictures of elaborately painted fingernails, saying she thought they were cool. I wasn't sure if she had ever tried doing it herself but I found a nail art book on Amazon that had some great designs. It would be the perfect gift to make into a gift basket! 

Kyle said it sounded like a good idea so I ordered the book and then picked up several nail polish colors to go with it. I went to Michaels and found some very fine, tiny paintbrushes and a couple dotting tools. And finally, I bought a simple nail care set and a package of cute nail files. I didn't want to just drop it all into a bag, and I didn't like the idea of a basket for this either…   Then I saw some cake boxes at Michaels that were the perfect size so I bought a set of them.

I put some tissue paper in the box and started laying out the small items in the bottom. After I covered those I laid the book on top and crumpled more tissue paper over it. Once the lid was on I tied it with a piece of ribbon. It's simple but I loved how it turned out! 

And the birthday girl? She thought it was very cool. Before we went to the ballet a few hours later she had already painted her nails!  :)

Baking Basket

Our niece had her 11th birthday party last weekend. We decided kind of late that we would go and I went out the night before and picked up a gift. I knew what I wanted to get, I just hoped it would still be available. A couple weeks earlier I was walking around Joann's and I saw a book called "Almost Too Cute to Eat." It's a book that shows how to make cute little snacks--cookies, cupcakes and other sweets--the perfect gift for a girl who likes baking. I had only seen one copy though, so I was happy to see that it was still there. Along with the book I got a couple packages of candy melts, lollipop sticks, cupcake papers and big colored sprinkles--some of the supplies called for in the recipes. And I wasn't sure how to wrap everything so I bought a small basket, too.

Now to put it all together! Here are all the supplies I used:

I didn't measure anything in the store. Fortunately, the basket was just big enough to hold everything. It was a little tight, but I think gift baskets look better when they're full--makes it look like there is more in it. I already had a cellophane bag at home so I dug that out and some matching blue ribbon. The bag was a little wider than the basket though so once it was tied I taped the bottom corners of the bag toward the back so it wouldn't stick out. I also trimmed a few inches off the top of the bag so it wasn't overly tall. I think it worked pretty well! Here it is when finished...

It was the first gift opened by the birthday girl and she seemed pretty excited. Hopefully she has fun making all the cute little sweets!

Gift Baskets

Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day! :)  I didn't get a chance to talk to my Dad, as he wasn't home when I called, but we were able to have dinner and spend the evening with Kyle's parents, which was nice.
I had a hard time coming up with a gift for Kyle this year. Last June I made a personalized book for him using snapfish. It was 'written' by Parker and every page included a picture of him and Kyle as well as a one-sentence description of why Parker loves his Daddy. It turned out pretty cute and Kyle loved it. I had wanted to do something similar this year, but a lot of the pictures I wanted to use were taken on Kyle's phone and I wasn't able to get to them. So I was kind of at a loss as to what to get...  Then I remembered that the NHL draft is coming up, which is a big deal in our house! Since he married a Canadian, Kyle's become a loyal (and frustrated) follower of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He watches a lot of hockey and he's already been talking about the draft, which is this Friday. So I thought I'd make a "Countdown-to-the-NHL-Draft Survival Kit."   :)

What does one need when counting down to an NHL draft? I have no idea! But here's what I ended up getting:

-Maple Leafs t-shirt (I figured this was a necessity, right?)
-DVD of hockey bloopers/funny moments
-Small lego kit (to pass some of the time while waiting!)
-Puzzle book
-Sunflower seeds
-Reeces Pieces
-Mini snickers
-Hockey cards
-Beef jerky

The next thing was to find some kind of container to put everything in. As Kyle is not really a fan of cute little baskets,   :)  I was hoping we had a plain gift bag that would work. Unfortunately, the only ones I had left in the closet were baby-themed. Hmmm...not the best option for a guy.

Luckily I got a package in the mail last week and the little square box was the perfect size. It would need a little work but that would be simple enough.



Maybe.

I taped down the flaps and covered the whole box in wrapping paper. I don't know how to wrap an open box properly so I was excited to see that it was starting out well--the sides were nice and smooth. However, it was a different story once I got to the last side. I wasn't sure what to do with all the left over paper so I just tucked it inside and taped it down.  :-) A little bit of lumpiness is okay, right??  I cut out a square of the wrapping paper and taped it onto the bottom to make it look a little more finished.

Finally I filled the box. I put some crumpled tissue paper in the bottom and then set the gifts inside, trying to stand them up so he could see everything. There was just enough stuff to fill the box.

The final touch was adding a card. I thought it would be cute to have Parker make the card, so i took one of his recent 'drawings' and wrote on it. Handmade cards from your kids are the best!  :)

***

The first gift basket I made was a couple months ago. A girl in our youth group had to get all of her wisdom teeth pulled (poor girl!!). We wanted to get her a gift that was practical but still fun so Kyle suggested we make a basket of some of her favorite things. She wasn't able to eat much, obviously, but her Mom told us she liked a certain kind of juice. So I started by picking up a few bottles of that, and I added a few more things:

-Juice
-Apple sauce
-Pudding
-Chapstick
-Cookie Monster gel pack
-Mini puzzle
-Crossword/Sudoku book
-A pair of cute socks
-Get well card

I decided that I like making gift baskets!  It's such a fun way to personalize what you give--you can make it suit any type of person or occasion. I don't always know what to put in it, but that's half the fun--shopping for all the random little goodies that will go inside.  :)







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