Gift Baskets Made Easy

I came across this idea on Pinterest (where else?) and knew I had to make one for a friend of mine who has been going through a rough time lately.

It's called a Box of Sunshine, and it looks like this:

(source)

Wouldn't you love to receive something like this? I know I would!

The original idea is to mail it to someone in a box, but since my friend lives here in town, I made up a basket instead. Since the theme is sunshine, I tried to find all yellow items to fill it up with. I did all of my shopping for this at Dollar Tree. 

I got lucky and found a yellow basket in the crafts aisle, and then went from there. Here are the things I added to my basket, just to give you some ideas:

• Peanut M & Ms
• Lemonheads
• Swedish Fish
• Dots
• Wylers Light Lemonade packets
• Juicy Fruit gum
• Bath poufs in yellow and white
• Lotion
• Memo pad
• Nail Care items 

I bought a bag of yellow shredded paper and put it in the bottom of the basket. I also cut out some sunbeam shapes with my Silhouette Cameo out of cardstock and scrapbook paper and used double-sided tape to stick them in the basket.  I wrapped the whole thing in cellophane, tied it with a sheer yellow ribbon, then added a card I made out of one of the printables included in Karrie's blog post.  I simply cut out the portion I didn't need, glued it to yellow cardstock, and added one more sunbeam.

I hope she enjoys this as much as I enjoyed making it up for her!

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While at Dollar Tree, I also picked up some items to make a gift basket for a friends' little boy who has been in the hospital.  I started with a blue plastic basket with handles that I first filled with blue shredded paper. I went with a Spiderman theme on this one.

Included are:

• Ring Pops
• Skittles
• Spiderman Coloring Book
• Crayons
• Toy Cars
• Bubbles
• Small Water Bottle

Once again, I just wrapped it in cellophane and tied it with some blue ribbon I had in my stash. I'll probably make a card to add to it. 

These baskets are so much fun to make, and don't cost a lot of money. I hope you will consider making one for someone you know - it will surely brighten their day.