A nifty gift idea

When it comes to birthdays and present giving in general, I get so excited because I love to make things. I like to get all artsy and just creative. The only downside I think about being too creative is you have way too many ideas that you just want to put out there all in one go and sometimes it just doesn’t work.

I decided this year as a gift to one of my closest friends, I would make slash buy her something and I haven’t done something like this in such a long time and making this gift for her reminded me of how much I love being creative and having wonderful friends that inspire me to make these things.

The theme for this gift is purple as it is her favourite colour. So I went to the shops and just bought a whole heap of little nick nacks that she might like and could be useful for her.

Here’s what I put in, rose clips, a compact mirror, powder puff, falsies, nail polish remover wipes, nailpolish, iphone case, lipgloss, bracelet, 3 piece baking tool set, chopsticks (random) and a nivea sample for her face.

These are the things that I bought to make this gift which cost me $10 and I had some craft stuff lying around as well.

-        Gift box ($4)

-        Tissue paper ($2)

-        Ribbons ($4)

First decide what fillers (that’s what I like to call them) that you’re going to add. For me I decided to put in

-        Lots and lots of ribbon

-        Some mini bells

-        Some dowels

-        Tissue paper

-        A bunch of sequins that say happy birthday or are purple

Think of a birds nest and when the person opens the gift they just start digging around to see what else there is and it’s something exciting because they don’t know what you’ve put in and don’t know how much stuff there is.

Second get the tissue paper and fold it so it fits inside the box ensuring that there is an excess amount at the ends. This excess will “wrap” the gifts.

Third place all the ribbons inside the box. Make sure you curl the ribbons as well and try to use different types of ribbon some curly maybe even add some shredded paper. The whole messy look gets the receiver of the gift more excited because they’re just going to keep looking. It’s like opening 12 gifts in 1 thing every time they find something.

Fourth, add in the fillers, sprinkle the sequins around the box, the bells, the dowels anything you want. Be creative. A lot of these things I already had from previous arts and crafts projects, it helps to keep them all in a box and pull it out whenever you need it.

Fifth, place the gifts inside the box, hiding some under the ribbons so they can keep looking for what else is in there.

Sixth, with the ends of the tissue paper, fold it over and seal it with a sticker. Here I chose to stick a little purple present sticker I thought looked really nice. It shows you’ve put a lot of thought even for the simplest of things.

Next, for that added touch or smell I should say, spray some perfume onto that tissue paper, the scent will be absorbed onto the tissue paper and close the lid on the box so the smell will be there when they open it.

With the gifts, I thought I’d make it even more personal and I wrote a little bit about what the product was and what she could use them for. For example, with the nail polish I wrote,

-        BYS nailpolish: Getting your nails in touch with the fashion world. Don’t forget the toes too, because feet are ugly.

That’s just a little inside joke between her and I because she knows I hate feet. Just something like that shows how much you value your friendship adding things about each other and why that product reminds you of that person.

So I wrote them onto little cards and just tied it up with ribbon, making it look like a parcel and it just adds something extra to the gift.

I know when you think of giving a gift, you think a card, you need to buy a card. I hate buying cards to be honest with you, I just like making them and coming up with my own nifty little sayings. Have you guys watched 500 days of summer? I should have a job like that.

But what I did instead was on the lid of the box on the inside, I placed a piece of ribbon across the box and slipped under a note that I wrote just for that person, saying happy birthday and how much they meant to me and all kinds of soppy stuff, like you would, especially if she’s your best friend. 

Finally, wrap the box around with a piece of ribbon and here I added a little musical tag with her name at the back which just gave the box some added décor and it looks pretty snazzy too if I say so myself.